In the 2023 Wimbledon quarterfinals, Daniil Medvedev defeated American Christopher Eubanks and approached another milestone in his glittering career. Never before this season has the first racket from Russia not been so good at playing on the “grass”.
Even the notorious “soil”, which Daniil did not eat for a long time at the previous Roland Garros tournament, was not such an impossible dream as the unbearable London part of the Grand Slam. Today, our tennis player has essentially created history by repeating the greatest achievement in recent Russian history. Before him, in 2008, Marat Safin closed the door on his career and did it in England, where he reached the semifinals.
Frankly speaking, Medvedev has not yet met the best players in the tournament, but even before this season, the suffering on grass always ended at the early stages, in fights far from being against the kings of the tennis courts. Daniil was lucky with the net, he was moving quite confidently towards his historic achievement and no Eubanks “for an hour” could stop him from going further.
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The match with the American seemed decided already in the first set. The Russian shamelessly bombarded the tall youngster with dribbles down the lines, made no mistakes on his serves and was extremely focused. True, already in the second set he became alarming for our athlete, because Christopher picked up the keys to the game from Daniil and constantly appeared in the net, as if he were a real greenhouse. Medvedev dropped the second set almost without a fight, and continued to experience the same problems in the third. But he pulled himself together, began fighting the judge in the tower the old-fashioned way, brought the fourth segment of the fight to a tiebreaker that gives life in such situations, leveled Eubanks’ attempts on the front line, and finished off. Christopher, frankly tired, in the fifth set.
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It can be said that Daniil Medvedev took revenge on himself and such, referring to yesterday’s quarterfinal losses to Andrei Rublev and Roman Safiullin, but tennis is a self-sufficient sport where there is no room for reflection and team spirit. Tea, not Davis Cup, it’s every man for himself. And Danya is running fast towards her first Wimbledon title.
Yes, the opponent in the semifinals of the third racket in the world is more than serious: Carlos Alcaras, who is already called the genius of the new generation, but in this sport, in a single match, anything can happen. Daniil, unlike Alcaraz, will not be weighed down by the weight of responsibility and high expectations. Medvedev is one of the leaders of the tour, but he does not fall into the category of “greatest”, so he will be as calm as possible in the ½ final, and this can play into his hands.
