The 20-year-old Alcaraz defeated Zverev for the second time in a row and the third time in six meetings. He averted all five break points, on the contrary, he himself broke the opponent’s serve four times. He also recorded 29 game-winning balls.
“I feel great on this court. I’m ready to fight Daniil in the semifinals,” Alcaraz said in a courtside interview.
The Spanish tennis player is attacking for his third Grand Slam title in New York. In addition to last year’s triumph at the US Open, he succeeded at Wimbledon this year. He has not lost 12 matches at the Grand Slams and could repeat the Wimbledon fight for the title with the Serbian Novak Djokovic in the final.
“Well, it’s obviously closer than it was at the start of the tournament. It would be great to play the final here in New York against Novak. But we both still have a tough semi-final ahead of us, so we’ll see,” said Alcaraz.
Zverev, six years older than him, who knocked out the Italian Jannik Sinner in the round of 16 after almost a five-set battle, struggled with visible fatigue. After the match, he regretted not using two break points in the first set to lead 4:3. “If I had broken it there, it might have turned out the other way. But I couldn’t do it,” said Zverev. “Even though I lost the first set, I thought it would be an even match. I believed it would be fun,” he recounted.
However, before the start of the third set, Zverev requested a medical break due to problems with his thigh muscle. He returned to the court, but it was not enough for Alcaraz. “I didn’t give up, but at a moment like this you can’t do much against Carlos,” Zverev pointed out.
Twenty-seven-year-old Medvedev made it to the top four for the fourth time in the last five years on the New York concrete. Overall, this is his seventh Grand Slam semifinal and second in a row. He reached the same stage this year at Wimbledon.
He beat Rublyov, two years younger, despite more unforced errors (40:37) and fewer winning balls (26:32). However, he broke his opponent’s serve nine times and ended the duel with a converted fifth match point.
Both players had to deal with temperatures above 35 degrees Celsius and high humidity on the court. Moscow-born Medvedev warned against matches in similar conditions.
“We left everything there today. But if the match was longer, we would leave even more there. And the only thing that is a little dangerous is the question of how far we would go. Maybe we would play five sets and everything would be fine. Or we would have another case here like with Wu Yi-ping in Washington,” Medvedev mentioned at the press conference the collapse of the Chinese tennis player at the recent tournament.
“We probably can’t stop the tournament for four days because that would ruin everything. It would affect TV broadcasts or tickets. But should we go for three sets under these conditions? Some guys won’t be happy about it either. I don’t have a solution, but it’s still better to talk a little about it before something happens,” added Medvedev.
Rublyov did not advance to the semi-finals of a Grand Slam for the ninth time and was eliminated at Flushing Meadows at the same stage as last year. This year he also finished in the quarterfinals at the Australian Open and Wimbledon.
US Open tennis tournament in New York (hard surface, $65 million subsidy): Men: Singles – quarterfinals: Alcaraz (1-Sp.) – Zverev (12-German) 6:3, 6:2, 6:4 Czech results tennis player here:
2023-09-07 22:48:29
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