Athletistic/Tennis. Daniil Medvedev reached the quarter-finals of the 2024 Australian Open. In the 1/8 finals, the Russian beat Portuguese Nuno Borges.

After the match, Medvedev noted that the match was not easy for him.

“It’s difficult to play with an opponent like Nunu. In general, short shots don’t scare me. But he made incredible drop shots, without bounces. Simply wow, incredible. Sometimes he almost made them at mid-flight, unexpectedly. I think he did it 20 times, no less than 15.

My legs hurt from running there, especially from where I’m standing. And he had some very strong punches, I didn’t notice them during the match with Grigor Dimitrov on TV. There were statistics, he has a much stronger forehand than Grigor. It’s weird. Grigor has a very strong forehand. I didn’t notice it on TV, but today I felt it. Very strong and violent blows. Each blow he delivered took me a little by surprise. And then he did a drop shot, which worked well. Of course it was boring. Glad you managed to get through it.

I will 100% try to change position on the pitch, I do that sometimes. I did it in the last match, if I’m not mistaken. I also tried it against Sinner in Turin. But every time it’s the same. I think we should have done that in the final against Novak at the US Open. I play my way, which means I stay away on the return when I think I can win the match that way, take a break, then take my serve. Sometimes if I think it won’t work, I try something else. Let’s see if that happens here.

The third set was very difficult physically because he played very aggressively. Whenever I hit a shot that wasn’t too aggressive on a play or didn’t send it too deep, he responded with full force. It was impressive. I didn’t play well enough, I often missed shots and made double faults. After that set, I was like, “Okay, the third set is over, nothing can be changed. I hope it doesn’t happen to five sets.” Fortunately he didn’t arrive at five o’clock.

I felt 100% before the match, but he made me run! This is also why I missed the end of the third set and got hooked. But thanks to that, I recovered a little and was able to regain strength for the fourth set. Maybe it was possible to push him to third so as not to play fourth, I don’t know. Now I’m tired again. A good match, but I will have a day off, everything will be fine for the next match.

Am I a host? I do not think so. I don’t receive it so well up close. I can of course, but not ideally, better to ask Novak. Originally received next to the line. And then I was easily beaten by an opponent whose serve was only 220, I didn’t even have any break points. And I thought: maybe I should try playing something different? The next time, in a match against an opponent with a powerful serve, I stood further back. Then, facing an opponent with an even stronger serve, I stood even further. And at some point I realized that I could play with a lot of people like that and that I was the best at receiving by far. And so on.

I don’t think you need to be as big as me to play like that. When you play close to the line, you have to take one step to reach the serve, and from far away you sometimes have to take three or four steps. But this way it turns out to hit harder.

How can small players play at such a distance? Well, that’s a problem. Nuno was incredibly successful with the short shots today. I remember Alcaraz, who has one of the best drop shots in the world, hit maybe 10 winners with short shots in the Indian Wells final. Then I went to Miami and everyone started playing short against me. And I thought: if you have an imperfect drop shot, then I will win the tournament. And I was very happy to have done so well with their shots. And today I wasn’t happy with his dropshots because they were amazing. I work on it with the coach, I run to the net, I get tired, I rest and I go to the match,” Medvedev said after the match.

Medvedev’s next opponent will be Hubert Hurkacz.

“Hubie is a difficult opponent for me. It seems that I lost the last three matches against him. No. In general, I lost a little (smiling). He serves well, but it’s hard to play the return. He was first in aces. He might even have had better service last year. This will be the key. You have to play hard on your serve, don’t give him a break, try to break yourself or take him to the tie-break and win there. Tomorrow I will mentally prepare myself for this.

Do I consider him a Grand Slam contender? With his presentation – always. It also plays well on any surface. He has such a good serve that he can take it to the tiebreaker every time. Let’s try to take a break. Sometimes when you take a break, he loses. It’s tennis, so… I think it’s close. At Wimbledon, I reached the semi-finals, it’s already a great achievement. Sometimes in Grand Slams he does amazing things and gets knocked out early and loses to people I thought he would play better against. He already has two Masters degrees. When you have the Masters, you are already a contender for the Slam. Yes, he has a chance. Hopefully not this time, but we’ll see.

In my opinion, Hurkac serves better than a lot of guys. I would compare his serve to Kyrgios, he is both very precise and very strong. Nuno served very precisely today, but not so hard, certainly not 220. I had time to go on the pitch.

There are guys – I won’t name names – who serve 220, 230, but not always accurately. I can accept that. And we have few. Hurkach. Novak improved his serve. Yannick has progressed a lot. Hurkac, Kyrgios, before that there was Karlovich, Isner. Who else? I’m not sure I fall into this category. I don’t serve much, I barely reach 210, but it seems to me that I have a well-calibrated serve. Hurkacz is in the top 2 or top 3 on tour of duty. It’s hard to play with him at reception. I will prepare my eyes and try to get everything I can,” Medvedev said.

On January 22, all the quarter-finalists of the AO-2024 men’s singles were known:

January 23

6:30 a.m. Moscow time Novak Djokovic (Serbia, 1) – Taylor Fritz (USA, 12);

12:30 Moscow time Jannik Sinner (Italy, 4) – Andrey Rublev (Russia, 5).

January 24

3:00 p.m. Moscow time Hubert Hurkacz (Poland, 9) – Daniil Medvedev (Russia, 3);

15:00 Moscow time Alexander Zverev (Germany, 6) – Carlos Alcaraz (Spain, 2).

Recall that the first Grand Slam tennis tournament of the new season started in Melbourne on January 14 and will end on January 28. The prize fund for the 2024 Australian Open stands at more than $58 million.

Andrey Andreev, Sport.Ru


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