Daniil Medvedev has never been a player who isn’t afraid to speak his mind or cast shade and he proved that following his late-night win at the US Open on Saturday.
Medvedev, who won the tournament back in 2021, defeated Argentina’s Sebastian Baez, 6-2, 6-2, 7-6 (6), in a two-and-a-half hour match that didn’t begin until just before 11pm local time. Coming into the match, Baez had recorded 12 consecutive wins on the Tour and reached the third round of a major for the first time. Nevertheless, it was the experience of the world No.3 that prevailed as he sealed his spot in the last 16 in New York for the fifth year in a row.
“I felt like we were both playing well, even in the first two sets. I was just a little better on important points, everything was going my way,” Medvedev said after his latest victory. “Third set he raised his level just a little bit to make the match even tougher. A bit of luck and some good play from me kept me in the set and it’s good to not finish at 4 (a.m.).”
The only significant blip the Russian experience against Baez was during the third set when he found himself down 1-4 before fighting back to draw level and then edging out his opponent in the tiebreaker. Overall, he hit 35 winners but they were cancelled out by an unforced error count of 49.
It wasn’t just the person across the net that Medvedev was having to deal with during his latest match, it was also some members of the animated crowd who didn’t take it too well when he asked umpire Aurélie Tourte to remind them to be quiet between the first and second serve. The 27-year-old also made gestures to them to be silent which prompted a series of boos in the process.
Speaking about the crowd afterward, Medvedev singled out one particular fan whom he decided to impersonate.
“Thanks to all the guys who didn’t shout between the first and second serve,” he said on the court.
“I think there is one guy. I don’t know if he has a girlfriend or wife, but I don’t know how the girlfriend or wife is going to sleep because I think he’s so pumped up that he’s going to tonight say, ‘VAMO! VAMO! VAMO! VAMO! Like non-stop. I feel sorry for him.”
Jokes aside, Medvedev’s next US Open test will be Australia’s Alex de Minaur who defeated Nicolas Jarry 6-1, 6-3, 6-2. This summer the Australian has reached his maiden Masters 1000 final in Toronto and has scored five wins over top-five players so far this season with one of those being against Medvedev in Toronto.
“The game plan against someone like Jarry, who’s got such big weapons, is to try to neutralise him and find a healthy balance between kind of pushing the ball and still being somewhat aggressive without missing,” de Minaur said.
“I think I found that line today – and it was great just to keep applying that pressure. If he wanted to win, he was going to have to come up with some amazing winners, and it didn’t discourage me.”
Medvedev currently leads de Minaur 4-2 in their head-to-head.
