Athletistic / Tennis. For the second year in a row, a Russian representative will play in the semifinals at Wimboldon. Each time, Daniil Medvedev reached the sixth round of the Grand Slam tournament on grass. If earlier he succeeded mainly on hard surfaces, now we can confidently say that Danya has adapted to grass. Medvedev is about to enter the history of Russian tennis again – so far, no Russian has reached the Wimbledon final in men’s singles (in 1973, Alexander Metreveli managed to do so, but the native of Tbilisi represented the USSR at that time and, although he lives and works in Russia, he is Georgian by origin).

But to achieve this, Medvedev will have to create a sensation and oust Carlos Alcaraz from the throne. The Spaniard is the current Wimbledon winner and was rightly considered perhaps the main contender for the title even before the tournament began. Many experts and fans expected Carlitos to face Italian world number one Jannik Sinner in the semifinals, but this was prevented by Daniil Medvedev, who managed to defeat the ATP ranking leader in a thrilling five-set match in the Wimbledon quarterfinals. Now, the Russian is hungry for revenge, because a year ago, Alcaraz had left him no chance in the semifinals.

In personal meetings, the score in the confrontation between Medvedev and Alcaraz is 4:2 in favor of the Spaniard. The last time they met was on March 18, 2024 in the Masters final in Indian Wells. This meeting went to Carlos – 7:6 6:1. Medvedev’s last victory over Alcaraz took place in the semifinals of the US Open in 2023. And in 2021, Daniil defeated the Spaniard in the second round of Wimbledon, giving him only seven games in the entire match – 6:4, 6:1, 6:2. But Carlos was still too young, and Daniil was already in the top 3 of the ATP rankings. Therefore, in 2023, everything was different.

Photo source: Wimbledon

From the very beginning of the match, Alcaraz put his signature shortened shot, which constantly confused Medvedev. With their help, Carlos did not leave the Russian any chance to catch someone else’s serve. But Daniil did not have any major problems with his serve. So the opponents played until the eighth game. But there Medvedev wanted to punish his opponent with his own weapon and tried to perform a shortened kick – it went wrong. The ball flew into the middle of the court and became an easy target for Alcaraz – Carlos brought the score to 30-40 and immediately converted the first break point of the match. This moment became decisive in the set, which ended with a score of 6:3 in favor of the Spaniard.

  • Russian character. Medvedev came to Wimbledon to become the first

At the beginning of the second game, Alcaraz immediately took his opponent’s serve. Then Carlos started to constantly go to the net after an excellent serve and incredibly quickly chained the rallies. He did not leave a single opportunity for Medvedev to make a reverse break. And in the ninth game, the Spaniard again took the Russian’s serve and closed the set with the same score 6:3.

At the beginning of the third set, Medvedev began to make a large number of blunders. Therefore, few people were surprised that after 10 minutes the score was 3:0 in favor of Alcaraz. Many thought that Medvedev had stopped playing. Perhaps this thought also came to the Spaniard’s mind, so he gave his serve to his opponent for the first time in the match, committing a double fault on a break point. Daniil scored 2:3 and went to serve. In the sixth game of the third match, Daniil managed to collect four break points, but still could not equalize the score and again let the Spaniard go – 2:4.

Photo source: Reuters

But Danya immediately returned the lost serve! However, he failed to revive the intrigue of the match. Medvedev’s serve did not go well, so he easily allowed his opponent to make another break. After that, Alcaraz stopped playing cat and mouse and closed the match – 6:3, 6:3, 6:3.

I would like to believe that Medvedev has managed to fix his mistakes of the past year and can now become the first Russian to reach the Wimbledon final. After defeating Sinner, it no longer seems impossible. We will know the answer to this question on July 12.

Nikita Serbakov, Athletistic



Athletistic