By Anshu Taneja
Third seed Daniil Medvedev overcame a nervy finale to finally put away defending champion Carlos Alcaraz in four tight sets 7-6 (3), 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, and now faces Novak Djokovic in Sunday’s decider.
In a match lasting three hours and nineteen minutes on a sold-out Arthur Ashe Stadium, the match lived up to its billing and did not disappoint, featuring numerous outstanding rallies as both men displayed all the best of their attacking and defensive skills from all parts of the court.
“The crowd was unbelievable today. Absolutely unbelievable, I mean it” said Medvedev in his on-court interview afterwards.
“We had some crazy points and there was love to both sides. Some Spanish guys started screaming at 5-3 [in the fourth] during the points which is not so nice but I guess they were desperate. I said I needed to play 11 out of 10. I played 12 out of 10, except from the third set.”
This was the third meeting between the two this year with Alcaraz winning both matches very convincingly: the first a straight sets demolition in the Indian Wells Final – where Medvedev criticized the slow-paced surface – and then again in the Wimbledon semis where he won every set 6-3.
Both players held serve in an impressive opening set. At 4-5 down and with no room for error, Medvedev held to love and had 0-30 in the next game. Then Alcaraz held firm in a quality rally ending with a brilliant inside out forehand and escaped the game to go 6-5 up. The next game featured the best rally of the first set with Alcaraz covering the net like a man possessed and even though he pushed a volley wide, it drew a standing ovation from the crowd.
Fittingly, the set would be settled on a tiebreak where Medvedev took the first mini-break with a stunning forehand up the line but the Russian gave it straight back with a double fault and they switched ends at 3-3. But Alcaraz failed on a drop shot, and then missed a forehand to give Medvedev a real chance of taking the set – and two points later he won it with 85% of first serves won and a whopping 40% of unreturned serves.
Alcaraz, who had failed to take advantage of two breakpoints early in the first set, suddenly found himself facing one at the start of the second and surrendered his serve meekly with another failed drop shot. Meanwhile Medvedev continued dominating the baseline exchanges and took a 3-0 lead having won 14 of the first 18 points. He even carved up two more breakpoints in the next game and though he couldn’t take one, he was cruising on his service game, holding for 4-1 having not lost a point on serve thus far, and broke again in the next for 5-1.
Medvedev, who came through his quarter final in straight sets against Andrey Rublev, had now won the set 6-1 with just three unforced errors – a tactical masterclass. Simply outstanding from the World Number three, who was the tour leader with 37 wins on hard courts this year, and now tantalizingly close to his fifth Grand Slam Final.
Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz had never recovered from two sets down in a Grand Slam in five previous attempts, and now had a mountain to climb. But he slowly worked his way into the set by getting the upper hand in the baseline rallies, and began focusing on Medvedev’s backhand and upped his percentages on serve. Along with thirteen blistering winners, he also converted 13 of 15 net approaches and using the energy of the crowd and relying on his inner belief, he converted on his only breakpoint with a beautiful rolled backhand lob to go 3-1 up. He held on to that lead throughout to take the set 6-3 to the delight of the crowd. Game on again.
But once again Medvedev raised his game in the fourth. Games went with serve until the sixth where Alcaraz found himself under serious pressure with some long physical exchanges and six deuce points. After thirteen long minutes Medvedev broke for a 4-2 lead. Both players held, and then at 5-3 and now serving for the match, the Russian went 0-30 down and then 15-40 down to hand some final hope to Alcaraz. He saved both and then reached match point but inexplicably threw in two double faults – showing just how much tension there actually was on court.
Once again, the crowd were treated to fabulous points in the nervy ending which see-sawed both ways at deuce before Medvedev finally put away his fourth match point to settle the enthralling contest and deny Alcaraz, meaning that Roger Federer still remains the last man to successfully defend the title back in 2008.
Medvedev has made his living with his unorthodox style of play mixed in with excellent court coverage and had a 28-5 lifetime record at the US Open over the last six years. Coming in to the match, the general consensus was that it was he who would have to come up with a different game plan and not stand so far back at the court.
“Before the match for sure I had a lot of doubts after losing easily to him twice this year. He is honestly just really unbelievable” explained Medvedev afterwards. “To beat him you need to be better than yourself and I managed to do it. The third set was not so bad. I lost one serve and I felt I wasn’t so far away on his. I managed to do some amazing points in the fourth and he started to miss a bit which we don’t usually see.”
