On a stifling afternoon at the Miami Open, Hubert Hurkacz came in from the cold to deny Daniil Medvedev the No 1 ranking and leave the cramp-stricken Russian “like a fish on the sofa”.
Hurkacz, who moved into the last four with a 7-6 (9-7), 6-3 victory, has made typically understated progress at Miami Gardens, quietly navigating the backwaters of the outside courts despite his status as the defending champion.
Here, however, in his first match in the main stadium, the towering Pole offered the schedulers a reminder of the qualities that carried him to the title last year as he dominated on serve, discomfited Medvedev with the quality of his returns and grasped the nettle in the forecourt to seal his 10th successive win at the event.
“I think the return was crucial,” said Hurkacz, the eighth seed. “I was able to make a lot of returns and get some free points on my serve. Having rallies with Daniil is fun, but they get long. It is good I was able to get some free points.”
For Medvedev, it was a dispiriting conclusion to what has been an underwhelming North American hard-court swing. Needing to reach the semi-finals to reclaim the top ranking from Novak Djokovic, the Russian once again fell short of his best at a venue where the slow, high-bouncing surface is no more to his liking than the heavy balls, which he described at one point as “garbage”. He has never been beyond the last eight in Miami, and here his difficulties were compounded not only by the excellence of Hurkacz, but also by the cloying humidity that frequently left him breathless and bent double over his racket as the second set wore on.
The brutal nature of the tussle was not entirely unexpected. The pair had previously faced each other on three occasions, all last season, and each contest was a humdinger. Hurkacz edged a five-set, three-hour epic at Wimbledon, while Medvedev twice fought back from a set down to exact revenge in Toronto and Turin. This time around it was Hurkacz who seized the early initiative, an error-strewn start from Medvedev costing him five of the first seven games. Yet Medvedev had recovered from a similar position against Jenson Brooksby in the previous round and, when Hurkacz faltered as he served for the opener at 5-3, it seemed another comeback might be on the cards.
Sure enough, Medvedev hung on to force a tiebreak, twice fending off set point. But at 7-7, Hurkacz benefited from a major stroke of good fortune as a mishit forehand dipped sharply to bamboozle Medvedev at the net. This time the Pole made no mistake, ripping a forehand winner behind his serve to seal the set. Five games later, when he was broken after a gruelling, 11-minute service game in which he saved five break points, Medvedev’s problems deepened.
“After the tough points, I felt that my breath was not recovering fast enough,” said the Russian, who received medication from the physio as the contest neared its conclusion. “Second set, at one moment, I just felt strange. I [do] not often feel like this, but sometimes it happens when it’s hot. [I] don’t know the actual reason, maybe the heat. But I was feeling super dizzy, tired, and there was this long game where I couldn’t serve any more.”
Medevedev’s discomfort continued after the match, when the tournament doctor gave him electrolytes and told him to get up after he began cramping. “It was good advice to stand up, because I was like sitting down, really tired, and then suddenly every muscle just went cramp, cramp, cramp, cramp. I was like a fish on the sofa.”
There were no such problems for Hurkacz, who will face Carlos Alcaraz in the last four after the Spanish teenager fought back from a set down to beat Miomir Kecmanovic of Serbia 6-7 (5-7), 6-3, 7-6 (7-5).
“I spend a lot of time here in Florida, so I’m used to those kind of conditions,” said the 25-year-old. “I think that definitely helped and maybe played a little bit of a part in the match.”
In the bottom half, sixth seed Casper Ruud will attempt to reach his first final at this level against Francisco Cerundolo, the unseeded Argentine whose fairytale run in Miami has included wins over Frances Tiafoe and Gael Monfils.