Medvedev's Great Fear: "The Current Situation Scares Me"

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Despite certain elements that remain present in tennis, we have seen how certain supplements have been added to players' diets along with foods like bananas or dates as they travel the circuit, some with general purposes and others with very specific goals. Gradually, these supplements have gained more strength among tennis players, becoming essential in their daily routine.

Why do they take so many supplements?

"It's not that many," said Medvedev in an interesting interview with The National News. "In tennis, you get sick. In regular life, you take a paracetamol and it's fine. In tennis, if you get sick and have a match the next day, you try to take vitamin C, vitamin D, vitamin B, paracetamol, whatever helps. You end up taking like 10 supplements just because you're feeling unwell."

"It wouldn't surprise me to see someone with 30, not even with 13. In fact, it would surprise me to see someone at the top only listing four supplements. I would be very surprised. Without the supplements, I would die on the court. The current situation has made me worry about potential contamination. 'Paranoid' is the right word, but another is 'scared', because no matter what you take, you basically don't know if it could be contaminated," stated the Russian player.

Fear of Potential Contamination

"We all take proteins, just as someone takes creatine, BCAAs, or omega-3, it's a basic thing that many people normally take to simply help their health. You never know what might happen with them, if a mistake is made in some laboratory, I don't even know where they are made. To a normal person, it wouldn't matter, but to another, it could ruin their life, so yes, it's something that causes stress," affirmed Daniil, but he's not alone.

"It gets in your head that if someone uses cream around you and you test positive, they'll come after you. You end up being too afraid of the system, I don't know how I can trust it," said Sabalenka. "Especially when two cases like Iga's and Jannik's arise. I really don't believe they did anything, but I think you have to be super careful about everything around you."

"I remember that when I started working on the tennis circuit, I constantly looked at what other physiotherapists and fitness trainers gave to their athletes for recovery. One time, a fitness trainer went to the bathroom and forgot to store the drinks and threw them in the trash. When he left, I searched the trash to see what his player was taking. It's an important part of what gives an advantage to your player," confessed a fitness trainer who currently works with a tennis player on the circuit.

We have often seen tennis players asking for that boost from their team, who quickly prepares the drink, even mixing it secretly so that opponents have no clue what they are using. Novak Djokovic himself has been at the center of controversy on this topic several times, until he went on to create SILA, his own line of supplements.

This news is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, El gran miedo de Medvedev: "El panorama actual me asusta"