Giving a set for the first time: how Medvedev defeated van de Sandshulp and reached the semifinals of the US Open for the third time

It is unlikely that any of the experts did not consider Daniil Medvedev to be the clear favorite of the quarterfinals of the US Open tennis championship. The second racket of the world showed amazingly confident play on New York courts, and Botik van de Sandshulp, not only did not have experience of competing at such stages of major tournaments, but also never met with rivals of this level. Until now, the Dutchman has only once shared the court with a representative of the top 10 ATP rankings and has not been able to take a single set. At Wimbledon, he lost to future semi-finalist Matteo Berrettini.

True, this could conceal the main danger for Medvedev. Previously, he himself performed four times in the quarterfinals of Grand Slam tournaments, but never crossed paths with van de Sandshulp, which could do a disservice. The seeded Diego Schwarzman and Kasper Ruud have already stepped on the same rake in the American Major, having laid down their arms in duels with the Dutchman. The risk of becoming the next on the list of defeated was clearly present, and much depended on how well, from the point of view of psychology, Daniel would approach this match.

After all, there was no doubt that the Russian is in excellent shape and is ready, if not to win his first victory at the Grand Slam tournaments, then at least repeat his own result two years ago and reach the final. Medvedev went on a series of four very confident victories, during which he did not allow opponents to take more than four games in any of the sets. Yes, we can say that he was a little lucky, since before the fourth round his potentially strong rivals were eliminated, but this hardly bothered the Russian himself much. He allowed the only seeded Briton Jack Evans to win only 10 games, and in total he had given 32 in the tournament by that moment.

And at the beginning of the match, the impression was that Medvedev could well reach the semifinals, setting a new record. Van de Sandshulp fully justified the status of the underdog, which was given to him not only by analysts, but also by bookmakers (the coefficient for his victory was 18.0) and could not catch on either on his serve or on the reception. Usually, in men's tennis, the percentage of points won by hitting the first ball is more than 75 - 80%, while in the Dutch it stopped at around 42%. The main reason for this was the timidity with which he played the first half of the game. It was evident from his actions that he was uncomfortable sharing the court with the second racket of the world.

Van de Sandshulp managed to cope with the jitters only in the last games of the set. He continued to provoke long exchanges of blows, but he looked much more interesting in them - he constantly varied both the length and the speed, which caused problems for Medvedev. Usually he is considered an uncomfortable opponent, but here it was the opposite. This led to a break on the Russian's serve with a score of 5: 2, but the Dutchman failed to build on the success. Daniel did the opposite and won the first game.

The second was so simple for him that there was no need to talk about any intrigue. Suffice it to say that Medvedev did not allow van de Sandshulp to win more than two points, not only on his own, but also on his serve, taking six games in a row without much struggle. Bottik himself helped in this, whose attacking actions ended in failure in most cases. If in the first set, although he often made mistakes, he compensated for this by actively winning balls (12:12), then misfires prevailed in this (2: 7). Daniel only had 23 minutes to lead with a score of 2: 0 in games and stop one step away from reaching the semifinals.

In light of this, what happened in the next game came as a surprise. At certain points, it began to seem that Medvedev was playing too adventurously, hoping to end the match as quickly as possible. The problem is that this was accompanied by a barrage of unforced errors. If for the first two sets in Daniel's passive there were only nine of these, then in the third there were already 12.

Van de Sandshulp felt he had a chance to become the first tennis player to win a set against Medvedev at the 2021 US Open. And if at first he waited and mainly watched how the Russian gives him one point after another, then he became more active himself. The climax was the fourth game, during which Botik managed to carry out three excellent attacks in a row and make the second break in a match. However, this time Daniel did not even have a chance to be rehabilitated. Subsequently, the Russian won only three draws at the reception in total and lost the game with a minimal difference.

We have to admit that Medvedev drew the right conclusions and did not allow emotions to prevail over him.

The fourth set turned out to be tense in a row, but the Russian had an advantage in the game.

He took four of the six games on his serve to zero, and in the remaining two he lost a total of four points.

One of them is due to a double fault, the other is on the second ball.

Thus, the percentage of won draws at the reception with van de Sandshulp turned out to be catastrophically low - 11%.

Nevertheless, the Dutchman looked good on the pitch, as a result of which the first chance to make a break appeared for the Russian only in the tenth game.

It was not possible to take advantage of the first matchball - an attempt to attack from a reception was unsuccessful, and the ball was launched into the net.

But a few minutes later, Medvedev still broke the resistance of van de Sandshulp - 6: 3, 6: 0, 4: 6, 7: 5.

Felix Auger-Alyassim will be the last hurdle on the way to the second-in-his-career US Open final.

Unlike the Russian, the Canadian didn't even have to play a full match.

Already in the middle of the second set, the body of 18-year-old Carlos Alcaraz could not stand it, which made him refuse to continue the fight with the score 3: 6, 1: 3.

As the Spaniard later said, he was prevented from continuing to fight by an injury to the adductor muscles of the thigh, largely due to high loads that were unusual for a young athlete.

As for 21-year-old Auger-Alyassim, his opponent's rejection allowed him to become the youngest semi-finalist of the US Open since 2009.

Then Juan Martin del Potro reached this stage, who at that time was only 20 years old.

However, the Argentine did not stop there and won the title, alternately beating Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.

At the same time, two young athletes continue to fight for the trophy in the US Open women's grid. And one of them has already made history. Leila Fernandez in three sets dealt with Ukrainian Elina Svitolina (6: 3, 3: 6, 7: 6) and became the youngest semi-finalist of the American major after Maria Sharapova. The Canadian celebrated her 19th birthday only on September 6. True, even today her achievement can be surpassed by the British Emma Radukanu, who is 67 days younger than her peer.

In the next match, Fernandez will face off against Arina Sobolenko, who is in great shape. The Belarusian tennis player gave only five games to the Roland Garros champion Barbora Kreichikova and not only won the 15th victory over the representative of the top 10 rating, but also made it to the 1/2 finals at the second Grand Slam tournament in a row. At Wimbledon, only Karolina Plishkova was able to stop her.