This expected victory (6-3, 7-5), not so easy to obtain against the American (119th in the world), who will be rewarded for his beautiful course by integrating the top 100 for the first time next Monday, is the 22nd in 23 matches for the Russian (5th). The latter has only lost to the Spaniard, in the last four tournaments he has played, in the final in Indian Wells.

A reunion is possible in Florida, but it will first be necessary that the prodigy of Murcia, required to succeed the "Sunshine Double" to keep his chair of N.1 world, passes his quarter against the American Taylor Fritz (10th), before then finding the Italian Jannik Sinner (11th) already qualified for the semis.

A stage reached for the first time by Medvedev, who was clinical in the first set, to take the measure of an opponent with an unpredictable game. This is evidenced by his two break balls converted into as many chances, after erasing the five that the American has obtained.

"It was very complicated. I feel like he did better than I did at first. Then, I managed to turn the tide, putting a lot of pressure on him," the 27-year-old Russian said afterwards.

"I knew we were both going to try to impose our style. I had opted to try to do long rallies, which I think is not what he likes, knowing that he was going to try a few shots, sometimes not even the right ones, to break the pace and make the points shorter. And that's what happened," he added.

Fifth final in a row?

With an outcome finally favorable to Medvedev, who also took advantage of the inexperience of his opponent from qualifying, for his first at this stage of a Masters 1000, category just below the Grand Slams.

American Christopher Eubanks lost to Russia's Daniil Medvedev in the quarterfinals of the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Miami on March 30, 2023 © CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP

Aged 26, Eubanks, however, did not seem affected by this scenario. He was even the most aggressive in the second set, to finally line up more winning shots than the Russian (37 against 27) and even commit fewer direct faults (10 against 11)!

Even if it was sometimes confusing, he was able to place superb attacks to finally take the serve of his rival and return to 4-3. But the winner of the 2021 US Open then made sure to avoid a decisive game that looked like a trap, breaking again at 6-5, to close the deal on his third match ball, in 1:29.

Winner successively in Rotterdam, Doha and Dubai in February, before falling on the last step in Indian Wells, Medvedev will try to reach a fifth final in a row in Florida. But he will first have to remove Karen Khachanov (16th) from his path whom he should not underestimate, even if he leads three wins to one in their confrontations.

Because his compatriot, easy winner (6-3, 6-2) of the Argentine Francisco Cerundolo (31st), has again confirmed his good dispositions on hard surface, he who reached the last four at the US Open last year and the Australian Open in January.

"We grew up together... Every time Daniil plays Andrey (Rublev) or I play Andrey or Daniil, it's never easy. We know each other very well. We played in Adelaide at the beginning of the year, and he beat me pretty badly I will try to approach this game differently and we will see how it goes," Khachanov said.

© 2023 AFP