On Monday, July 10, the final games of the fourth round (ie 1/8 final) in men’s singles take place at Wimbledon. Today, his match was held by the third racket in the world Daniil Medvedev, seeded in the tournament under the third number. In the first three meetings, Medvedev lost only one set – in the third round, the Russian won strongly over the Hungarian Marton Fucovich (4: 6, 6: 3, 6: 4, 6: 4). And the British Arthur Feri and the French Adrian Mannarino Daniil passed in three games.
Related Materials
“Mysterious character” British journalists confess their love to Medvedev at Wimbledon
Now Medvedev’s rivals are the 21-year-old Czech tennis player Jiri Legechka, who is ranked 37th in the ATP ranking. For Legechka, the road to the 1/8 final match turned out to be nominally a bit more difficult, as he had to battle the seed twice. In the first round, the Czech proved to be stronger than the Austrian wild card holder Sebastian Ofner (6:4, 6:4, 6:4), in the second, he unexpectedly and easily defeated Argentine Francisco Cerundolo (6:2, 6:2, 6:2), seeded 18, and in the third the American Tommy Paul (16) finished. To settle things, the opponents had to play five games: 6:2, 7:6, 6:7, 6:7, 6:2 in favor of Jiri.
In general, Legechka is making a lot of progress this season. He still has no titles at the ATP level, but at the Australian Open, the 21-year-old reached the quarterfinals, which in itself is a significant achievement. At that tournament, the Czech defeated three seeds at once: Bornu Coric, Cameron Norrie and Felix Auger-Aliassime. And only Stefanos Tsitsipas could stop him.
Jiri Legechka plays at Wimbledon 2023
Photo: Michael Regan/Getty Images
So Medvedev had to take a responsible approach to preparing for battle with an opponent with whom he had never played before. He did not need to have an easy game, despite the name of the rival. Besides, for Daniel the stakes were high. He had never before reached the Wimbledon quarterfinals. And in the fourth round of the grass major, the 2021 US Open champion visited only once – in the same 2021.
“Very happy to have moved on. I really want to perform well here. I didn’t play here last year and this is my worst Grand Slam in terms of results. I have great motivation to change this. The further you go, the stronger the opponents. I want to show my best tennis and enjoy the game,” the ATP press service quoted Medvedev as saying after reaching the 1/8 final.
A little later, Daniil added at a press conference: “Then I play with Jiri Lechka. This is a very strong opponent, he can be very dangerous on the grass. I will try to at least repeat my best result at Roland Garros.
However, 1995 Davis Cup finalist Andrey Chesnokov called Medvedev the favorite of today’s meeting. “Legechka ran such a marathon in the last match. Whether he can bounce back from that five-set marathon, I don’t know. If Legechka is physically ready and recovered, it will be an interesting match. Medvedev is playing better and better. Somewhere, it’s even good that Daniil lost the first set to Fucovich. He earned his nerves, for future games. For me, Medvedev is the favorite in the match with Lechka, ”Chesnokov said in an interview with the Championship.
Related Materials
Rublev’s miraculous kick in the match with Bublik at Wimbledon! The video has 20 thousand views in 40 minutes
The meeting between Medvedev and Legechka was arranged with the first pitch on court 1, where there is a roof, so it was certainly possible not to be afraid of rain. The fact that Medvedev was in a good mood for the match became clear already in the first game. The Russian was able to take the opponent’s serve from the second break point. The second time Daniel came close to a break in game five, but missed a double break point. There was nothing wrong with this though, as Medvedev kept his serve quite confident, even though he did commit two double faults per game. In the ninth game, the Russian missed a set point on the reception, but in the tenth, on serve, he brought the game to zero: 6: 4. Legechka made as many as 14 unforced errors in this game, but his opponent made only six.
By the way, in one of the draws at the end of the first set, a curious situation arose. The ball that fell during Legechka’s reception hit someone from the spectators in the stands right in the beer glass; this is rarely seen.
fans
Photo: Frame of the transmission.
After losing a set, Legechka, who had leg problems, took a medical break – the break was almost 10 minutes. In the second game, Medvedev also made an early break (already zero!), only not in the first game, but in the third. In the fifth game, with a score of 3:1, 30:30, there was another delay in favor of the Russian, also 10 minutes, because some of the spectators in the stands got sick. This game ultimately brought Legechka, who managed to rally back as far as four break points. However, Daniel generally controlled the situation, not giving his opponent a chance to reach a breaking point. In the seventh game, Medvedev once again took someone else’s serve: he missed a triple break point, but converted the fourth chance. And then filed for the set – 6:2. During the entire second game, Daniil lost just three points on his serve.
And before the start of the third set, Legechka withdrew. The final score is 6:4, 6:2 (rejection) in favor of Medvedev. The match lasted 1 hour and 20 minutes.
So Medvedev, for the first time in his career, made it to the top eight at Wimbledon. In the quarterfinals he will play the winner of the pair Christopher Eubanks (USA)-Stefanos Tsitsipas (Greece, 5). And yesterday Andrey Rublev became a quarterfinalist; most likely, he will play 23-time TBS champion Novak Djokovic. Roman Safiullin also reached this stage – Yannick Sinner is waiting for him.
Thus, three Russians went to the Wimbledon 1/4 final at once. This is a repetition of the Russian record on TBSH, set 2.5 years ago. At the Australian Open – 2021, Aslan Karatsev, Medvedev and Rublev made it to the top eight. Now these are the same Rublev and Medvedev, as well as Safiullin.
Wimbledon 2023 will end on July 16. Follow all the events of the tournament in the “Championship”.
