Fair question. Top-ranked Novak Djokovic is a nine-time
Australian Open champion who finished one win short of a calendar-year Grand
Slam in 2021.
Modelling himself after the 20-time Grand Slam champion,
Medvedev told himself late Wednesday to make Felix Auger-Aliassime fight for
every point.
More than one hour after saving a match point on his serve
in the fourth set, the U.S. Open champion finished off a 6-7 (4), 3-6, 7-6 (2),
7-5, 6-4 comeback victory almost a half-hour after midnight.
“He was playing insane, like better than I have ever seen
him play. It was unreal,” Medvedev said. “So third set I had zero confidence in
myself and in the outcome of the match.”
Medvedev mentioned his thoughts about Djokovic during his
on-court TV interview and in a later news conference. He wasn’t joking.
“I was not playing my best, and Felix ... was all over me,”
Medvedev said. “I didn’t know what to do so I (asked) myself, ‘What would Novak
do?’
“And I just thought, OK, I’m going to make him work. If he
wants to win it, he has to ... fight to the last point.”
Medvedev will have to recover quickly to play Friday against
French Open runner-up Stefanos Tsitsipas in a rematch of last year’s semifinals
at Melbourne Park. Medvedev won at the same stage last year but lost in the
final to Djokovic, who wasn’t allowed to defend the title this month because he
failed to meet Australia’s strict COVID-19 vaccination rules.
Tsitsipas had a much easier path to the semifinals, beating
No. 11 Jannik Sinner 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 earlier on Day 10.
Both men’s quarterfinals had delays mid-match because of
rain.
Medvedev got a six-minute break at 2-1 in the third-set
tiebreaker for the roof on Rod Laver Arena to be closed, and it swung the
momentum mostly his way.
Auger-Aliassime won only one of the last six points in the
tiebreaker after dominating for the first two sets. He missed a match point on
Medvedev’s serve in the 10th game of the fourth set.
Medvedev saved it with a big first serve out wide and then
held with an overhead winner.
He broke Auger-Aliassime’s serve in the next game game and
held to level the match at two-sets all. He then got another service break when
the 21-year-old Canadian double-faulted in the third game of the deciding set.
It still wasn’t over yet.
Serving for the match, Medvedev had to save two break points
— he saved six of six in the set and nine of 11 overall — before closing it
out.
After the 4-hour, 42-minute quarterfinal match, Medvedev is
now two wins from becoming the first man in the Open era to win his second
Grand Slam title in the next major tournament after his first.
It’s a statistic he said he wasn’t previously aware of, but
would now serve as extra motivation to win the title.
“If it’s true, then it will be history,” he said. “It’s
perfect.”
Auger-Aliassime had lost all three previous matches against
the second-ranked Medvedev, including a straight-set loss in the U.S. Open
semifinals last September.
But he was the aggressor in the first two sets, keeping
Medvedev off balance with his forehand, up-tempo game and athleticism. He hit
64 winners and made 75 unforced errors as he attacked at every opportunity. It
forced Medvedev into uncharacteristic double-faults in the first set and made
him play more inside the baseline to claw his way back in the third and fourth
sets.
“I wish I could go back and change it, but I can’t,”
Auger-Aliassime said of the result. “I have accepted it already. I’m going to
leave Australia with my head held high, and I’m going to go into the rest of
the season knowing I can play well against the best players in the world.”
Medvedev finished with 49 winners and 53 unforced errors. He
served 15 aces but also had nine double-faults. He has been effectively the No.
1 seed since Djokovic was deported on the eve of the tournament following an
11-day visa saga.
Another who could benefit from Djokovic’s absence is Rafael
Nadal.
The 35-year-old Spaniard, seeking a men’s record 21st major
title to break a tie with Djokovic and Roger Federer, will play Wimbledon
runner-up Matteo Berrettini in the other semifinal match.
The temperature dropped for the men’s quarterfinals from the
highs of the afternoon, when Danielle Collins beat Alize Cornet 7-5, 6-1 and
2020 French Open champion Iga Swiatek defeated 36-year-old Kaia Kanepi 4-6, 7-6
(2), 6-3.
Collins’ win means there are two Americans in the
semifinals. Madison Keys, the 2017 U.S. Open runner-up, will play Wimbledon
champion Ash Barty.
The women’s semifinals are scheduled for Thursday.
After the first three women’s quarterfinals were decided in
straight sets — top-ranked Barty beat Jessica Pegula and Keys eliminated
Barbora Krejcikova on Tuesday — the last one went all the way.
“This match was crazy,” Swiatek said of her up-and-down win.
The temperature reached 36 degrees Celsius (97 degrees
Fahrenheit) in that match, continuing a week of hot weather.
As she left the court, Swiatek wrote on the TV camera lens:
“Thank you for the support. # Tired.”
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