Shirt off, shoes discarded, Daniil Medvedev looked for all the world like a man heading to the beach. But this was no vacation.
Minutes earlier, with Medvedev doubled up in exhaustion, the chair umpire Carlos Ramos had asked if the Russian was okay.“I can finish the match, but I can die,” Medvedev replied. “If I die, will the ITF take responsibility?”
Now, with his match against Italy’s Fabio Fognini level at one set all and the extreme weather policy once again in force at the Ariake tennis park, the second seed was trudging wearily off court for a 10-minute respite from the searing Tokyo heat.
Having taken a cold shower, Medvedev returned to see out a gruelling victory over Fognini 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 and set up a last-eight meeting with Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta, the sixth seed. It remains to be seen how much the physically punishing contest has taken out of him. Medvedev required medical attention on three separate occasions, twice for an abdominal problem that affected his breathing and later after suffering cramp in his left arm and thigh.
With both players labouring, the contest was excruciating to watch at times. Having fallen behind after a poor start, Fognini took every opportunity to move his stricken opponent around the court, pushing the Russian from corner to corner before drawing him forward with short angles and drop shots. In the seventh game of the second set, Medvedev twice missed chances to seal a potentially decisive break. After each energy-sapping exchange, the Russian was left crouched over on his racket, desperately gasping for air.
Amid it all, Fognini somehow remained his usual volcanic self. The Italian became understandably frustrated in the third game when, following a lengthy rally, he was called for a time violation after taking too long to towel off. Ramos felt the full force of his ire at the change of ends. When Fognini suffered a second consecutive break of serve to fall 4-1 behind, the world No 31 furiously reduced his racket to a crumpled heap.
After the match, Medevev too got hot under the collar, raging at a reporter who asked him if Russian athletes in Tokyo were “carrying a stigma of cheaters” after the country was banned from the Olympics for a catalogue of doping offences. “That’s the first time in my life I’m not going to answer a question. You should be embarrassed of yourself,” said Medvedev.
Calling for the journalist to be removed from the Games, the Russian then told a nearby press officer: “I think you should wire him from either the Olympic Games, either the tennis tournament. I don’t want to see him again in my interviews.”
On the subject of the weather, Medvedev was more forthcoming. “Even from the first set I didn’t feel good enough with my breathing,” he said. “That’s why I called the physio. I felt like my diaphragm was blocked. And then in the second set, I just had darkness in my eyes, like between every point. I didn’t know what to do to feel better. Like I was bending over and I couldn’t get my breath together, so I was ready to just fall down on the court.”
Perhaps in belated answer to Medvedev’s question to Ramos about the International Tennis Federation taking responsibility for the potentially life-threatening conditions, the world governing body later announced that, from Thursday, the start time for matches would be pushed back from 11am to 3pm in order to avoid the hottest part of the day. It was a measure that both Medvedev and Novak Djokovic had called for after their opening round matches, the Serb remarking that “playing for half an hour and then retiring” was not an Olympic experience any athlete would want.
On a day when Spain’s Paula Badosa was forced to withdraw with heatstroke after losing the first set to Marketa Vondrousova, Djokovic’s words proved prescient. Badosa, who lost five games in a row to the 42nd-ranked Czech after establishing a 3-1 lead, remained in her chair at the change of ends and was subsequently escorted from the court in a wheelchair. The ITF said the decision to alter the schedule was made “in the interests of player health and welfare”.
“It’s a shame to end my participation in this way,” said Badosa, the world No 29. “It’s been a tough ask since day one. We tried to adapt as best we could, but today my body hasn’t held up as it needed to.”
There were no such problems for Djokovic, who moved into the last eight with a comfortable 6-3, 6-1 win over Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. Power and consistency from the baseline are the bedrock of the Spaniard’s game, but such qualities are meat and drink to the top seed, who has now dropped just 15 games en route to the quarter finals.
Davidovich Fokina nonetheless had his moments. There was a beautiful, angled drop volley that drew generous applause from the Serb. A finely crafted topspin backhand lob, flicked from deep behind the baseline by Davidovich Fokina with his weight falling backwards, likewise received the thumbs-up. But then Djokovic could afford to be magnanimous, given his supremacy. The match had the air of a training session – perhaps no coincidence, given that the pair have been regular practice partners since Djokovic moved to Marbella last year.
If the Spanish 16th seed thought those workouts would give him an edge against the world No 1, he was swiftly disabused of the notion. Inside knowledge acquired on the practice court is a two-way street, and Djokovic had the measure of his opponent throughout. Davidovich Fokina’s most promising moment came as early as the third game, when some bold hitting off the ground combined with a couple of rare loose shots from Djokovic brought up two break points. The top seed responded with aplomb, twice outrallying the Spaniard before showcasing the range of his game with some aggressive play in the forecourt. Davidovich Fokina did not have another opportunity to break for the remainder of the match.
Djokovic, who later won his opening match in the mixed doubles alongside Nina Stojanovic, said he was comfortable dealing with the pressure that accompanies his quest for a clean sweep of all four majors plus Olympic gold. “Without pressure there is no professional sport,” said Djokovic, who will face Japan’s Kei Nishikori in the last eight after the former world No 4 beat Ilya Ivashka of Belarus 7-6 (11-9), 6-0.
“If you are aiming to be at the top of the game you better start learning how to deal with pressure and how to cope with those moments, on the court but also off the court. All that buzz and all that noise is the thing that, I can’t say I don’t see it or I don’t hear it, of course it´s there, but I’ve learned, I’ve developed the mechanism how to deal with it in such a way that it will not impose destruction to me. It will not wear me down.”
Djokovic’s path to Olympic glory was further eased by the defeat of Stefanos Tsitsipas, who led the Serb by two sets to love in last month’s French Open final. Tsitsipas, the third seed, was hampered by a leg injury in the closing stages of his 2-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2 loss to Ugo Humbert of France, the 14th seed.
In the women’s draw, fourth seed Elina Svitolina will face Vondrousova in the semi-finals after beating Italy’s Camila Giorgi 6-4, 6-4. Belinda Bencic of Switzerland, the ninth seed, beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-0, 3-6, 6-3 to set up a last-four appointment with Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina, the 15th seed, who defeated Garbiñe Muguruza 7-5, 6-1.