Towards each other: Medvedev crushed Eubanks, and Khachanov dealt with Serundolo in the quarterfinals of the Masters in Miami

Rain Man

By the quarterfinals of the Masters in Miami, Daniil Medvedev approached in the status of a clear favorite. And it's not just that on the way to this stage he played one match less than planned - because of the injury, Alex Molchan was forced to refuse to meet with him. His opponent Christopher Eubanks was not only not considered an elite tennis player, but was not even included in the first hundred of the ATP rating. At the time of the start of the competition, he was located only on the 119th line, and over the past week he lost 11 positions. Moreover, in 2023, he only appeared on the court seven times and suffered as many as five defeats, breaking the resistance of only Dusan Lajovic and Hugo Umber.

Despite this, the start of the confrontation turned out to be difficult for Medvedev. And it's rather his own fault. In the first set, he made four double and eight unforced errors and generally allowed too much for his counterparts. While the American looked very confident on his serve, the Russian experienced tremendous difficulties. In the first game at the reception, Eubanks managed to impose a serious struggle, and in the second he earned five break points at once. True, none of them was able to implement.

Medvedev needed a pause to recover and make the necessary adjustments. And the weather itself gave him that chance. With the score 3-2 in favor of Eubanks in Miami Gardens, it began to rain, because of which the match was interrupted. And after returning to the court, another Russian appeared in front of the fans. The next game he took to zero, and then made two consecutive breaks and easily took the starting game.

Up to a certain point in the second set, everything was still dictated by Daniel. He was flawless and allowed his opponent to win only three of the first 15 draws on the reception. And then he made a break. Christopher fought desperately and stayed afloat thanks to a powerful serve and timely exits in the net. But as soon as I smeared the first ball, I had tremendous difficulties.

Medvedev took a lead, but a few minutes later he personally helped Eubanks restore parity. A double coupled with a couple of inaccurate shots from the back line cost him the game. And the American went all-in and tried to poke the ball right under the back line. And the Russian was not ready for such agility of the opponent.

Everything was going to a tie-break, but Medvedev still did not bring the matter to it. At 5-6, Eubanks faltered and played three of the four rallies: he scored a smash, missed the square twice and landed in the net in a fairly simple situation. And although he later gathered himself and played both matches, he still could not stop the Russian. At the third attempt, he pressed the American and for the first time in his career made it to the semifinals of the competition in Miami - 6: 3, 7: 5.

Khachanov's Dominance

The triumph in the confrontation with Stefanos Tsitsipas immediately raised Karen Khachanov to the status of one of the favorites of the competition. But in order to go to the semifinals, where Medvedev was already waiting for him, the Russian had to overcome the test with an extremely difficult opponent. In Miami, Francisco Serundolo has already managed to deal not only with Lorenzo Sonego, but also with the sixth racket of the world Felix Auger-Aliassime. And so he didn't seem like a whipping boy.

Karen realized this as the first set started. He partly helped Francisco catch on to the reception at 2-2, but not only his problems with hitting the first ball and a couple of unforced errors forced him to find himself in the role of catching up. At times, the Argentine counterattacked very powerfully and thereby put the Russian in a stupor. And a few punches turned out to be crazy.

But Serundolo clearly lacked stability. Suddenly, he began to cope less and less with Khachanov's top spins on the right and sin with inaccuracy. In total, in the first set, he made ten mistakes (three times as many as his counterpart) and allowed him to win four games in a row, two of them on his serve. And the double on the break point was seen as a sign of desperation.

The failure in the first game so demoralized Serundolo that he actually "did not go" to the second. In long rallies, he regularly conceded, smeared a lot, and at the reception he was practically helpless. Out of 23 points, he took only seven. Khachanov continued to systematically increase his advantage. In the first game, he made a break, and then repeated his success in the fifth, finally removing all questions about the winner. Francisco managed to avoid a rout, but no more - 3: 6, 2: 6.

Departure alexandrova

Perhaps the most difficult opponent on the way to the semifinals was Ekaterina Alexandrova. She had to face the two-time winner of Wimbledon Petra Kvitova, who defeated another Russian in the previous round. Varvara Gracheva stubbornly resisted for two hours, but still suffered a defeat - 5:7, 6:7 (5:7).

As for the face-to-face confrontation of the athletes, despite the long stay on the tour, they had previously met on the court only once. In 2020, their paths crossed at the Australian Open, where the Czech dealt with the Russian without any problems (6: 1, 6: 2). It is noteworthy that in the same year Alexandrova could take revenge and technically did it. Vis-à-vis was forced to withdraw from the tournament in St. Petersburg, as a result of which Ekaterina reached the next round without a fight.

This time, Kvitova still got to the court and very confidently won the opening set. The Czech did not allow the Russian to earn a single break point, while she herself had seven, even if she realized only one. In fact, everything could have ended with the score 3:5, but Alexandrova gathered herself and played two setballs, but later still capitulated.

The key to Petra's success in the first game lay in her overconfident play on serve. When hitting the first ball, she was almost not inferior in rallies (16 out of 20), and she managed it extremely often (in 74% of cases). But in the second, everything changed. The 12th racket of the world began to act less stable, and even double fell one by one. In total, there were as many as four of them. And this weakness could not but take advantage of Alexandrova. Now she did not give her opponent a single opportunity to succeed at the reception, and she herself took advantage of one of the five chances.

In a manner unusual for women's tennis, the girls continued to take their serves in the third game. And up until the seventh game, they did it with ease. The first attempt to get ahead was made by the Russian and was one step away from triumph, but three consecutive misfires brought her efforts to naught. And, apparently, so broken that a few minutes later she herself was in the role of catching up. Two doubles, a series of misses - and Kvitova is already preparing to take a ticket to the semifinals.

Alexandrova could not turn the tide of the confrontation. Even though she played one matchball, there wasn't enough for more. Kvitova won the 133-minute thriller (6-4, 3-6, 6-3) and moved on. For reaching the decisive round, she will fight with Sorana Kırstöy.