Daniil Medvedev was never keen on the script for this year’s US Open.
Everyone else talked up the prospect of another blockbuster meeting between Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic to stand alongside their epic showdowns in the Wimbledon and Cincinnati finals. Medvedev amiably agreed that it was a great story and a great rivalry, but said he hoped people would be talking about him by the end of the tournament.
Well, they are now.
Shrugging off the hype and shrugging off the distraction of a boisterous New York crowd with whom he has plenty of previous, Medvedev dethroned Alcaraz, the reigning champion, a 7-6 (7-3), 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 victory propelling the 27-year-old to his third US Open final in five years. Inevitably, Djokovic awaits, the three-time champion having earlier defeated Ben Shelton of the US in straight sets.
It required a performance of unrelenting effort and focus, not to mention extraordinary quality, to prise the title from Alcaraz’s grasp. But Medvedev never stopped running, never stopped believing in his ability to reverse this season’s dispiritingly one-sided losses to Alcaraz in Indian Wells and at Wimbledon.
We will never know what might have happened had the Spanish world No 1 been able to capitalise on either of the two break points he held in the fourth game of the match. What we do know is that Alcaraz, struggling with his timing and looking unusually flustered as a result, was for once unable to land a telling early blow. It allowed Medvedev to gain a foothold that had been denied him in their two most recent meetings, bolstering his confidence and providing the platform for an outstanding victory.
“All four sets I played great,” said Medvedev. “I said I need to play 11 out of 10, all the three sets I won I managed to do it. In the third set I would say I was maybe nine and a half, maybe 10 out of 10, and as we saw it was not enough against Carlos.
“I managed to play well, I managed to serve well, hit some lines in important moments, some great shots.”
Alcaraz knew what was expected of him, knew that Djokovic had completed his side of the bargain by advancing to the final, and only he will know how heavily those realities weighed on him. For whatever reason, though, the magic for once misfired just when the 20-year-old most needed it.
From midway through the first-set tiebreak, the Spaniard made a dog’s breakfast of one of his signature drop shots, failed to pull off a trademark reflex volley, and netted a forehand – one of 21 unforced errors he made with what is normally his most potent and reliable weapon. Medvedev, barely able to believe his luck, converted his first set point with a plus-one forehand and rapidly compiled a robust second-set lead, reeling off 14 of the first 18 points. At 3-0 down, it was all Alcaraz could do not to hurl his racket to the floor.
“After three-all in the tiebreak, I lost my mind,” said Alcaraz. “I make three or four points without control. I didn’t think. I totally lost my mind in that set. Fighting for 50 minutes and then for four points I lost my mind. It was really tough for me to handle it.
“In the second set, I didn’t come back. I was almost in the moon. For me, it was tough. Obviously, Daniil, he was playing great. It was tough for me to come back to the match and play a great game again.
“I almost threw the racket to the floor, but I just controlled myself, just to be in the moment. But it was tough for me to stay calm.”
The received wisdom before the match was that Medvedev would need to deviate from his established tactical approach, that his usual deep return position would leave him exposed to Alcaraz’s drop shots and net charges, just as it did at Wimbledon. In every possible sense, this was vindication – if it is even possible to speak meaningfully of vindication for a man with five title wins this season.
“I’m happy, because in Indian Wells and Wimbledon he used well my return position from the back,” said Medvedev. “But I knew that in my opinion it was not only this that made me lose to him, and I felt like even returning from the back I can cause him trouble. I managed to prove it today.”
So he did. And so the US Open has a new script – albeit one we’ve read before. There will be a rematch all right, but it will be a rerun of the final of two years ago, when Djokovic fell one win short of winning the grand slam on another night when Medvedev stunned the tennis world.