The semifinal match of the best Russian tennis player against Carlos Alcaraz was, perhaps, the only match in which it was not offensive to Dana to lose. Given Carlos’s form, almost no one bet on his opponent.

But for Daniil Medvedev there is nothing better than American hard and a situation where everyone is against him.

A shocking semi-final in every sense!

Medvedev’s impressive start

Medvedev won 18 of his 20 titles on hard court. This statistic, purely theoretically, gave Daniil the best chance of fighting the lightning-fast Spaniard. One would have expected the Russian to put up a more stubborn resistance than he did two months ago on the grass at Wimbledon.

However, as in England, Medvedev served very poorly at the start of the match. In the fourth game, only the Spaniard’s inexplicable mistakes prevented him from converting two break points. But then things began to look better for Medvedev. In the extremely important tenth game with the score 4:5, he concentrated and took his serve to zero.

At the reception, the Russian complained to the judge about the blinding spotlight under the arch of the Robert Ashe arena, which at the same time tried to bring down Carlitos’s mood. The Spaniard did not flinch, and the first set reached a tiebreak in 50 minutes, in which Danya secured a mini-break with a brilliant move. True, he then killed his achievements with another double mistake.

But the Spaniard was still not flawless, allowing Medvedev to score as much as a triple set point. The Russian closed the set on the first try and won a game against such a strong opponent for the first time this season – 7:6 (7:3).

Carlos didn’t show up?

The key to Medvedev’s success was the normalization of the first serve game. At the same time, in comparison with the Spaniard, our player could still significantly improve in this component: Dani made about 60% of the first goals, Carlitos – about 80%.

The second segment of the semi-final was a shock for the entire Spaniard’s team. His coach Juan Carlos Ferrero was shown almost after every rally and for good reason. Medvedev, having broken his serve, created a break point in the second game and immediately realized the advantage. Moreover, due to Carlos’ mistake on his favorite shortened one. Medvedev’s entry into the final, which not many people believed in before the match, took on real features.

Medvedev played truly with inspiration. The Russian managed both long rallies, the first serve, and even shortened ones, in which he was noticeably inferior to his opponent in the first set.

To be honest, it was hard to remember Alcaraz looking so confused. The first racket of the world made mistakes over and over again, and the Russian demonically collected all the lines. And we should also note Medvedev’s gigantic calmness, although the stands, which were zealously drowning for Alcaraz, would get on anyone’s nerves.

The quintessence of Dani’s advantage was two plays on Carlos’ serve in the sixth game, when the final shots performed by the Russian became a real nightmare for the favorite. The Russian made another break and called out to the stands, which were still more actively supporting the Spaniard. The American public responded with restraint. To spite her, Danya also took the second set – 6:1. In four games on his serve, Medvedev lost only two rallies. Amazing game quality!

Delightful Danya

After a crushing failure, the Spaniard ran to change clothes and got stuck in the tribune room. Only after 7.5 minutes the tennis players began the third set. Medvedev, who had cooled down, did not feel so confident on the court, which led to Alcaraz’s first break in this match. Well, when Carlitos then led 4:1 without any nerves, the fate of the game seemed decided.

It cannot be said that Medvedev began to play much worse. It’s just that the Spaniard came out of the break refreshed: he hung on at the reception and received from this the bright support of the stands, which Danya was deprived of in principle. As a result, there were fewer unforced errors in the Spaniard’s performance and a 6:3 victory in the set.

Our tennis player started the fourth game according to the Spaniard’s patterns: first he stayed late during the break, and then took his serve to zero. But then Medvedev’s first serve seemed to be turned off. Danya served the entire third game on the second attempt, which led to three break points for the Spaniard. But our player fought heroically and saved himself.

And then he responded brilliantly in the sixth game, which lasted longer than 12 minutes and cost several matches in terms of the number of highlights. Alcaraz even decided to raise his hands to the heavens in order to ask for help. But it didn’t help. The highlight was the Russian’s phenomenal move and the break – 4:2. The key episode of the entire game demonstrated Dani’s character and his willingness to take back what was his.

But when absolutely everyone believed in the Russian’s triumph, he gave his opponent a chance: Carlitos had two break points with the score 3:5. Danya pulled it off again and literally pulled out the first serve, earning a match point, and then made two double faults in a row.

Largely “thanks to” the groaning audience, who did not want the Russian to win and shouted between Dani’s first and second serves, this game lasted forever. Medvedev could not resist and showed his thumb to the stands, but did not allow them to kill his faith in himself. Danya finished off the Spaniard with an exquisite smash and scored a victory – 7:6, 6:1, 3:6, 6:3.

Medvedev reached the final of the US Open for the third time in his career and will now compete for the title with Novak Djokovic. But it was the Serbian that he beat on the way to his only trophy at the majors at the moment. We demand repetition!