After two late-night matches at Flushing Meadows third seed Daniil Medvedev finally finished work ‘early’ on Monday by taming Australian Alex de Minaur 2-6 6-4 6-1 6-2 to move into the U.S. Open quarter-finals for the fourth time in five years.
Medvedev has been working the graveyard shift at the U.S. Open, with his previous two matches starting one day and ending early the next, but after a sluggish start he stepped into high gear to speed past 13th seeded De Minaur.
“Today, first set felt like he couldn’t miss,” said Medvedev. “I was missing just a little bit too much.
“I felt like he was playing top level.
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“I was like, Wow, he’s actually destroying me right now, that’s why the score.
“To turn around the match like this is always a great feeling. It gives you a lot of confidence for next matches.”
Medvedev, the 2021 champion, led their head-to-head meetings 4-2 coming into the match but the Australian had won their last two contests, including a straight sets quarter-final win at the Canadian Open tune-up event.
De Minaur looked like he might make it three straight after taking the opening set on Louis Armstrong before Medvedev found his comfort zone.
Finally starting to dictate play, the Russian broke to win the second and stepped up the pressure in the third to move in front before calmly closing out a comfortable win.
Next up is a quarter-final against compatriot Andrey Rublev, who is godfather to Medvedev’s daughter.
“I think we’re really close friends ... we have a great relationship,” said Medvedev. “To have a friend like this is great but on the court we both want to win.
“We’re not going to be friends in two days.”
Andrey Rublev dispatched the last Briton Jack Draper 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 to reach the U.S. Open quarterfinals and then go back to the drawing board to figure out a way to clear the next hurdle.
Getting to the last eight is nothing new for the Russian, who has now made it to the quarters of a Grand Slam nine times but on each occasion so far that is where his journey has ended.
Rublev has run into a quarter-final brick wall at three U.S. Opens, tripped up by Rafael Nadal in 2017, Daniil Medvedev in 2020 and Frances Tiafoe in 2022.
“I don’t want to think about my game, to be honest, because I feel I’m playing well, and that’s the most important thing,” said Rublev. “That’s why I don’t want to pay attention to the game and to put extra pressure on me.
“I feel the ball well. I played good match today.”
Rublev was a one-man French wrecking crew on way to the quarters by disposing of lucky loser Arthur Cazaux, Gael Monfils and Arthur Rinderknech before facing Draper.
The British left-hander arrived in New York unsure if he could compete after suffering a small tear in his shoulder that forced him out of the Winston-Salem tune-up event but in the end was the last Briton still on court.
Draper, into the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time, came on court to battle and split the first two sets.
But in the third Rublev’s big match experience and quality began to show, as did Draper’s frustrations, as the Russian confidently claimed the next two sets and the match.
“In the third set I started to listen to my team and I started to also realise that, yeah, I was doing everything right,” said Rublev. “I was playing well, I had everything under control. “I just needed to get back to that mood.”
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