World number one Jannik Sinner defeated former champion Daniil Medvedev in a turbulent US Open match to secure his place in the semifinals against Jack Draper.
The Italian Sinner won in New York with 6:2, 1:6, 6:1, 6:4 against the fifth-seeded Russian.
Sinner, who won the Australian Open in January, and Medvedev were the only two major champions left in the men’s tournament and the match between them was highly anticipated.
However, neither of the two men managed to return to their best performance at the same time.
Medvedev, who was a losing finalist at Flushing Meadows last year and in 2019, made six double faults and 57 unforced errors.
Although Sinner did not show his best precision, his serve was far superior and he secured the victory in two hours and 39 minutes.
In the semifinals on Friday, Sinner will face his occasional doubles partner Draper.
“We know each other very well, we are good friends off the pitch too,” Sinner said of Draper.
“It will be very tough – I’m just happy to be in the semi-finals.”
There is now guaranteed to be a US Open newcomer in both the men’s and women’s singles, as the second men’s semi-final will be contested by Americans Taylor Fritz and Frances Tiafoe.
Sinner and Medvedev met in three of the four Grand Slam tournaments this year, but this match did not quite reach the high quality of their previous performances.
Sinner overcame a two-set deficit against Medvedev to win his first Grand Slam title in Melbourne, while Medvedev took revenge in another five-set match in the quarterfinals of Wimbledon in July.
When Medvedev was asked to serve first, he immediately came under pressure and had to fend off a break point before managing a break to 0 a few games later.
Sinner narrowly missed a step on serve before the start of the second set as he was drawn into the longer rallies that Medvedev enjoys so much.
The Russian took an early break and doubled his advantage after a 10-minute game on Sinner’s serve that ended with the Italian netting a forehand.
With the match evenly matched, the momentum shifted to Sinner’s side, who won five games in a row and had three set points on Medvedev’s serve, thus achieving the dreaded “bagel”.
Medvedev managed to win one more game in the third set and left the court to regroup, but he immediately had to overcome a 0-30 deficit in his first service game and a break seemed inevitable.
When Sinner made the decisive break to take a 4-3 lead, he showed his quality and secured the win with a breathtaking forehand winner.
Sinner has lost only two matches on hard court this season and has won four titles on the surface, including his triumph at the Australian Open.
His most recent success came in August in Cincinnati, when he won the title one day before it was announced that he had been cleared of any wrongdoing after testing positive twice for a banned substance earlier this year.
