Daniil Medvedev and Andrei Rublev will meet in the quarterfinals of the US Open

One of the semi-finalists of the US Open, which is approaching its culmination in New York, will definitely be the representative of Russia. After Andrey Rublev defeated Britain’s Jack Draper in four games, and Daniil Medvedev dealt with Australia’s Alex de Minor, the two strongest Russian tennis players faced each other for the third time at the quarterfinal stage of the Grand Slam tournament.

The second week of the US Open began with an increase in heat in the 30s, which, combined with high humidity, turns the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center into a real gas chamber. And the first of the three Russian players to reach the 1/8 finals in the men’s and women’s singles was Andrey Rublev.

Predictions according to which he had to face problems in the match with Briton Jack Draper, but in the end come out victorious, were completely justified. The second set performed by Rublev frankly did not work out, as a result of which he was a lot nervous, but then everything fell into place.

The British left-hander has a strong serve, and his biting corner shots from the back line sometimes caused Rublev a lot of inconvenience, but this was the same classic case when the quality of the top ten player could not help but affect.

The fact that, in general, the Russian had a great advantage is evidenced by the fact that he earned 14 break points, and his opponent only 4. True, Rublev managed to take someone else’s serve only four times (twice as many as Draper), but for victory after 2 hours 45 minutes and that was enough. After the ninth entry into the quarterfinals at the majors in his career and the third – this year, Rublev could only wait for his next opponent, who was determined in the evening in the meeting between Daniil Medvedev and Alex de Minor. And here, despite all the regalia of the Russian, the balance of power did not look so obvious, since the 24-year-old Australian looks very cool this year.

And such a coincidence hinted at the possibility of a sensation. Last year, before losing to Australian Nick Kyrios in the 1/8 finals of the US Open, Medvedev lost to him in Montreal at the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Masters 1000 tournament. Now, at the Canadian Masters, only in Toronto, the Russian has beaten another Australia’s representative is Alex de Minor. Of course, this fact did not guarantee anything to this talented, but still quite predictable player, especially since the impulsive and aggressive Kirios is much more dangerous for Medvedev in terms of the way he plays. However, it should not be forgotten that the only Grand Slam tournament where De Minor reached the quarterfinals was the 2020 US Open, and he lost there only to the future champion, Austrian Dominic Thiem.

The first set was extremely unsuccessful for Medvedev. Starting with a score of 2:2, he gave four games in a row, and even without any struggle, taking only four points in them.

When Medvedev, who complained of difficulty breathing, was suddenly brought to the court with an inhaler, his fans became quite anxious. But then the situation on the court gradually began to change. It is possible that from a psychological point of view, a point was extremely important for Medvedev, scratched out following the results of a beautiful rally in the third game of the second game, when he, being with his back to the net, needed to perform a spectacular twinner (hit between the legs). And in the next game, Medvedev managed to emerge victorious in a 34-stroke marathon rally.

However, he had to wait for a break for quite a long time. The outcome of that game was decided only by the final, tenth game, which the tired de Minor, who was no longer able to cope with the total pressure of Medvedev, frankly failed. Then everything went much easier. Medvedev, who seems to have adapted to difficult conditions much better than his opponent, looked better in all respects. And in the end, having lost only three games in the final two sets, he won even five minutes faster than Rublev, formally guaranteeing himself a ticket to Turin for the final Nitto ATP Finals tournament, where, in fact, he actually got a long time ago.

The statistics of previous meetings between the two best Russian tennis players to date is well known. They have already played seven times in the main draws of the ATP tournaments and the Grand Slam championships, and five meetings, including the quarterfinals of the US Open 2020 and the Australian Open 2021, remained with Medvedev, who is now the favorite. To this we can only add that Medvedev and Rublev, who had never made it to the semi-finals at Grand Slam tournaments before, have long been linked not only by professional relations. They are good friends, and in April Rublev became the godfather of Alisa Medvedeva, the daughter of the third racket of the world.

As for the women’s tournament, there were no Russians left on it. Daria Kasatkina, as expected, failed to put up stubborn resistance to the Belarusian Arina Sobolenko, who will become the leader of the world ranking next Monday. This defeat significantly reduces the chances of Kasatkina to get into the top eight participants in the final tournament of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), which she managed to do last year. In the classification, which takes into account the points scored this season, the Russian woman takes 11th place, but from the Greek Maria Sakkari, who is 8th there, she is quite a lot away – more than 700 points.

Evgeny Fedyakov