Daniil Medvedev summed up someone else’s condition – Sport – Kommersant

In the fourth round of the US Open, held in New York, last year’s winner Daniil Medvedev lost in four games to the 25th racket of the world Australian Nick Kirios. This failure did not allow the Russian to defend the leadership in the rating of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), which will now go to one of the two Spaniards – Rafael Nadal or Carlos Alcaras, or the Norwegian Kasper Ruud, who, unlike them, has already reached the quarterfinals and theoretically also claims in first place.

To accurately describe the defeat of Daniil Medvedev from Nick Kirios, it is difficult to find a single word. Fans of Medvedev, who had two set points in the tie-break of the first game, of course, will call him insulting. But for those who follow tennis at least a little, the success of the Australian is by no means a sensation, even if the Russian is currently ranked much higher in the rankings.

As far back as the results of the draw, it became clear that Nick Kirios would be Medvedev’s first serious opponent at the tournament.

And neither the defeat of several potentially dangerous players with whom last year’s champion could meet in the second week of the tournament, nor his three confident victories on the way to the 1/8 finals, made Kyrios less dangerous.

Of course, it would be interesting to know how things would have ended if Medvedev had taken a tie-break in the first game, in which he had three set points with a score of 6:5, 7:6 and 8:7. But considering that before that, the Russian had to win back his pitch, lost in the sixth game, the outcome of the set cannot be considered logical in its own way. It is easy to explain many further events. Say, Kirios’s three double faults in the second game of the second game, which helped Medvedev to take it, were the result of a temporary loss of concentration, which is usual in such situations. Perhaps, along the way, only one thing was not clear – why in the third game the advantage of Kirios became very noticeable, and in the fourth – overwhelming. At the beginning of the meeting, Medvedev complained to the judge about too loud tips across the court, which the Australian team resorted to.

But after the end of the game, the loser emphasized that, it turns out, it’s not about psychology. That the opponent played brilliantly – at the level of Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, and with such tennis is a contender for the title.

Medvedev also complained a little about the ubiquitous “crazy” American air conditioners, because of which he got a cold. However, as was rightly noted by the Russian at the same press conference, a month ago there was no sore throat in Montreal, but Kirios won anyway. And then the tie-break of the first set was left to Medvedev.

Be that as it may, the next US Open evening match with the participation of last year’s champion, which lasted, by the way, for almost three hours, ended with a score of 7:6 (13:11), 3:6, 6:3, 6:2. And this result overnight killed the hopes that Medvedev, following the results of the US Open, would be able to defend the title of the first racket of the world. After spending a total of 16 weeks at the top of the rankings, on September 12, he will cede the lead to one of his three pursuers. With a high degree of probability, it can be assumed that the Spaniard Rafael Nadal will once again ascend the throne, although the young compatriot of the 22-time Grand Slam winner Carlos Alcaraz also has a good chance. But theoretically, both them and Medvedev can still be overtaken by the Norwegian Kasper Ruud, who, after defeating the Frenchman Corentin Moutet in four sets, reached the quarterfinals of the US Open, where he had never been before. For the first time in his career, the Russian Karen Khachanov was also there. Having shown character and defeated a very difficult opponent – the Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta – 4:6, 6:3, 6:1, 4:6, 6:3, he will now try to stop Nick Kirios.

Evgeny Fedyakov