The US Open champion now meets Stefanos Tsitsipas in the semifinals on Friday. The Greek easily defeated the Italian Jannik Sinner 6:3.6:4.6:2.
For women, Iga Swiatek has the chance of her second Grand Slam final a good 15 months after her French Open title. With the hard-fought 4:6,7:6 (2),6:3, the top ten player from Poland ended the surprising winning streak of Estonian Kaia Kanepi in the quarterfinals. After 3:01 hours, Swiatek converted her second match point and made it into the semi-finals of the Australian Open for the first time. Swiatek will now play against the American Danielle Collins on Thursday to reach the final.
“What would Novak do?”
Medvedev’s victory hung by a thread. In the fourth set, Auger-Aliassime earned a match point when the score was 5: 4. Medvedev fended it off with a hard, well-placed serve – and broke the opponent’s resistance for the first time. The 25-year-old Russian won the next three games and six of the next seven games. In the decisive sentence, however, his success was again in the balance. From his point of view, Auger-Aliassime, who was injured on the ankle, missed two breakballs at a score of 4: 5, Medvedev scored three points in a row.
“I didn’t show my best tennis, he played incredible, served incredible. I didn’t know what to do. I don’t know if people want to hear it, but I thought to myself: what would Novak (Djokovic) do ? Or Rafa (Nadal) or Roger (Federer),” said Medvedev in the winner’s interview on the court. “I thought to myself: Okay, I’ll fight to the last point.”
Tsitsipas saves strength
On Friday, Medvedev and Tsitsipas will repeat last year’s semifinals, which Medvedev easily won against an overtired opponent. This time the conditions are reversed, because Medvedev was on the pitch for more than twice as long as Tsitsipas in the quarterfinals.
He was uncompromising against Sinner and always had the better answer ready against the 20-year-old tenth in the world rankings. It started to rain at the beginning of the second set, the two rivals fled under the awning of their bench and tried to stay focused as the roof closed bit by bit. Tsitsipas had just made the break to make it 2-1 and, like in the first round, took an early lead.
Unlike two days earlier in the round of 16 over five sets against Taylor Fritz, the Greek saved his strength this time. The favorite took the lead early in the third period as well and had no problems after that. “I tried to show my best tennis and it worked out better than I thought,” said Tsitsipas. After suffering an elbow problem at the end of last season, he was concerned about being able to compete in Australia at all. “I’m sure my doctor is watching now. He texts me after every game that he didn’t think he’d see me play in Australia. But I proved him wrong,” joked Tsitsipas.
Special success for Collins
Swiatek spoke of a “crazy match” after there were a few twists and turns in the duel with Kanepi. Against the 36-year-old Estonian, the 20-year-old kept her nerves even after falling behind in the set and losing a 4-1 lead in the second round. Despite a partially unsafe serve and twelve double faults, she prevailed.
In 2020, the Pole had amazed and made a name for herself as a teenager because she unexpectedly secured the French Open title. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the French Open was moved to autumn at the time.
Collins repeated her best-ever Grand Slam result from 2019 when she also made it to the semifinals of the Australian Open. The 28-year-old defeated unseeded French player Alizé Cornet in the surprise quarterfinals with a score of 7:5,6:1. Cornet was in the top eight for the first time at her 63rd Grand Slam tournament.
For Collins it is also a special success because of health problems in the past year. “It feels incredible, especially after the health challenges I’ve had,” said the world number 30. In April 2021, Collins had to undergo emergency surgery (endometriosis). In Melbourne, too, Collins did not get through without health problems. In the round of 16 against Belgium’s Elise Mertens, the heat and her back bothered her. Two years ago, the American missed out on the semi-final after losing to Czech Petra Kvitova.
Source: Nachrichten
