Killjoy

Daniil is depriving us of the Sinner/Alcaraz match we were all waiting for, but if the Russian keeps the same level he had in the semi-final, we're in for a treat!

But what kind of match did Medvedev just pull out for us?? That was definitely one of the best matches of his life, the level of play was sublime and Alcaraz on the other side was playing well too, which says a lot! Very aggressive without overdoing it, Daniil delivered a perfect tennis and tactical performance. We've been seeing for months that Medvedev has been gradually getting back to his best level, but each time he'd throw in a lousy match in the middle; now since Dubai it's been perfect and he's kept it going. What’s positive for him is the tactics and level of play he showed yesterday, he’ll have to do the same thing against Sinner tonight, we know their history by heart.

Medvedev was way too strong from the baseline for Sinner in their first encounters, then the Italian improved across the board and walked all over Daniil afterwards, to the point where the Russian tried to be ultra aggressive in several recent matches because he knows that otherwise he can’t beat him. I remember a second set at the 2024 US Open where he was hitting every ball to try and win the point, but it was impossible to keep that level over several sets; actually, he tried to do it again later and just got thrashed. He knows the game plan, and he just applied it against Alcaraz, now he just has to reproduce the same thing…

I’m a bit skeptical because he really nailed everything yesterday, and playing two perfect matches in a row seems difficult to me. I’ll take Zverev as an example: he had just destroyed Fils with a perfect performance and then completely faded against Sinner. The Italian also returns better than Alcaraz, so I think he’ll manage to get through because the match-up is even tougher for Daniil…