Daniil Medvedev is rarely slow to air his feelings when something is on his mind, although on this occasion “air” is probably the wrong choice of verb.
On an afternoon of suffocating heat and humidity at Flushing Meadows, Medvedev peered into a TV camera during his US Open quarter-final win over Andrey Rublev and offered an insight into just how punishing the conditions at court level were.
“You cannot imagine,” said the Russian third seed. “One player is going to die, and then they’re going to see.”
With the mercury touching 33C, Medvedev recovered from a break down in each set to seal a 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 victory in two hours and 48 minutes, although not before taking two medical timeouts. The Russian once again breathed into an inhaler, just as he did in the previous round against Australia’s Alex de Minaur, and both players made liberal use of ice towels and air conditioning hoses at the changeovers. Yet, while spectators were able to vacate the sun-drenched stands, for the players there was little meaningful respite.
The partial closure of the roof on Arthur Ashe Stadium, a measure introduced this week in response to New York’s late-summer heatwave, appears to have had limited impact. Medvedev said in his on-court interview that at one point he “couldn’t see the ball any more”, and later he elaborated on his concerns about the conditions, citing the example of Yibing Wu, the Chinese player who collapsed in Washington after struggling to breathe.
“Brutal conditions for both of us,” said Medvedev after reaching a fourth US Open semi-final in five years. “We left everything out there.
“The thing is that even if it would go further, I think we would still leave even more. I don’t think I had anything left but, if the match would go on, I would find something more. And the only thing that is a little bit, let’s call it dangerous, is that the question is, how far could we go?
“Maybe we could go five sets and it would be fine, we would struggle a little bit the next day and it would be fine. Or, we have a person in Yibing Wu who fell down in Washington… that’s a question mark.”
The nature of the contest hardly made things easier. Rublev is not only a powerful baseline slugger who plays every point with the pedal to the metal, he is also one of Medvedev’s closest friends and the godfather to his daughter. Personal dynamics almost invariably add an additional layer of complication in such circumstances although, having now won six of his eight meetings with his compatriot, Medvedev is familiar with the challenge. For all the 2021 champion’s disquiet about the conditions, his defensive play was of the highest order, with Rublev forever forced to hit one more ball as he searched in vain for a first grand slam quarter-final victory in eight attempts.
“Obviously the conditions were not easy, but it was [the same] for both,” said Rublev. “Especially against Daniil, [it] doesn’t matter, the conditions. You will always run a lot. You will always get tired because you have a lot of long points.”
Medvedev will now face Carlos Alcaraz, the top seed and defending champion, who eased past Alexander Zverev 6-3, 6-2, 6-4. Unable to convert two break points in the seventh game of the opener, Zverev fell behind in the next game as Alcaraz raised the tempo. A searing forehand return set up an easy put-away and, with the break secured, the Spaniard rapidly receded into the distance, winning seven of the next nine games to establish an unassailable two-set lead.
“In that moment I tried to play my best, I tried to play aggressive,” said Alcaraz. “Juan Carlos [Ferrero, his coach], he forces me to do it, to try to [stick to] my style, playing aggressive. If I miss it, it’s tough to handle losing that opportunity, but we have to keep going like this.”
So far, Alcaraz isn’t missing too often – either here or anywhere else. The 20-year-old has been beaten just once in 18 grand slam matches this season, and at Flushing Meadows he has dropped only one set, against Britain’s Dan Evans in round three.
After battling for almost five hours to overcome Italy’s Jannik Sinner in the previous round, it was a challenge too far for Zverev. Hampered by a hamstring problem, the German 12th seed struggled in the second set and did well to keep things close in the third.
“I felt something in my hamstring, glute, left side,” said Zverev. “I couldn’t push off on my serve any more. My serve speed was down quite a lot compared to the other days.
“Against him, especially, I needed a good serving day otherwise it would have been difficult. My biggest weapon was kind of taken away after the first set, and it’s difficult to even compete if you don’t have that.”
For Alcaraz, meanwhile, a potential rematch with Novak Djokovic draws ever nearer. In a classic Wimbledon final two months ago, the Spaniard handed Djokovic his first Centre Court defeat in a decade, only for the Serb to exact revenge in a three-set thriller in Cincinnati before the US Open. The possibility of a summer trilogy has been the talk of the town ever since the draw was made.
“It’s closer than the beginning of the tournament,” said Alcaraz. “We are just one match from that potential final. It would be great to play a final against Novak here in New York, but we both have a really tough semi-final, so let’s see.”
At Wimbledon, Alcaraz breezed past Medvedev in the semi-finals. This time, on the Russian’s favourite surface, things are unlikely to be so straightforward – whatever the weather.