The semifinal match between Daniil Medvedev and Carlos Alcaraz in the current Wimbledon draw promises to be one of the highlights of the entire tournament. This match will definitely not be an easy path for the Russian tennis player: his opponent is considered the favorite of the game.
Since the athletes last met on British turf, Alcaraz has gone from promising talent to world number 1. Two years ago, Medvedev amazingly dealt with the Spaniard at Wimbledon, literally smearing his opponent in three sets.
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The stands boycotted the Russian throughout the game.
Fight with a child prodigy
In 2021, Medvedev went to Wimbledon already in the rank of an accomplished star. The Russian took second place in the ATP ranking, and behind him was the first Grand Slam final – at the beginning of the year, he made a breakthrough at the Australian Open.
Alcaraz, on the other hand, was just beginning his career at an adult level. The 18-year-old Spaniard made his debut in the Australian and French championships, without staying long in any tournament, but the experts already point to generous advances for the tennis player. Carlos was called the heir to Nadal and was considered the future star of world tennis, as it turned out later, not in vain.
The Spaniard, in fact, could leave Wimbledon after the first round. Alcaraz’s opponents were lucky loser Yasutaka Uchiyama, who had low expectations in the tournament, but the Japanese put a lot of pressure on his young opponent. The match went on for almost four and a half hours, but Carlos still had the strength to take the fifth set. Medvedev, at the beginning of the tournament, met Jan-Lennard Struff: four sets were enough for the Russian to send the German home.
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Destruction in an hour and a half
To provide noticeable resistance to the Russian Alcaras could only in the first set. With the score 5:3 in favor of Medvedev, the Spaniard managed to make his first break in the game, to which the stands responded with enthusiasm and applause. Carlos failed to reverse the course of the game: our tennis player took the next game to the break (6:4).
It is significant that the Wimbledon guests at the same time reacted extremely coldly to Daniil’s successes, and after the first set they even began to buzz with disgust. Some fans frankly persecuted the Russian during the match, loudly rejoicing at each of his mistakes and distracting the player on the field. But Medvedev, apparently, this circumstance only prompted. After the end of the match, the tennis player even allowed himself a provocative gesture: the player with a mischievous face put his hand to his ear, as if listening.
Already in the second set, it became clear that the rest of the match would be dictated by a more experienced player. Medvedev placed the opponent on his shoulder blades, making three breaks – Alcaraz avoided the “flyer” only by a miracle (6: 1). The third set turned out to be essentially a formality: the Russian squeezed the demoralized Spaniard without any problems (6:2). Daniil’s meeting with Carlos ended up taking just 94 minutes.
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At the post-match press conference, Medvedev was hardly asked about the last game, for the most part everything was clear, but he wondered about his attitude towards the fans. Daniel responded with the greatest restraint:
— I liked the interaction with the fans. It seems to me that the British at Wimbledon are the most pragmatic fans, because they have no favourites, except for Federer, Nadal and Djokovic, said the tennis player.
The real difficulties of that season began for Medvedev in the third round. The Russian in the toughest four-hour matchup defeated Marin Cilic, coming back from 0: 2 in sets, after which he lost to Hubert Hurkach in five sets. Until recently, this result was the best in Daniil’s career – the athlete passed the fourth round only this year for the first time.
