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Third seed Daniil Medvedev beat top seed and World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz 7-6(3), 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 in the US Open semifinals on Friday, September 8.
In the title match, Medvedev will face second seed and three-time champion Novak Djokovic, who reached the US Open final for the 10th time in his career. Although the Serbian is the favorite to win the title, Medvedev should be quite confident after his victory over Alcaraz.
On that note, let us take a look at two things that stood out in Medvedev's win against Alcaraz:
#1 Daniil Medvedev applied pressure on Carlos Alcaraz’s backhand
Medvedev directed a lot of traffic towards Alcaraz's backhand throughout the match. The 27-year-old used his crosscourt backhand extensively to push the Spaniard to his backhand corner and then pulled the trigger by going down the line.
In comparison, Alcaraz relied a bit too much on his inside-in, inside-out, and crosscourt forehand, which gave Medvedev that extra bit of time. He only started hitting the down-the-line forehand from the deuce court from the third set onwards, but even then he faltered while playing it on a number of occasions.
Medvedev had to really work hard but then raced through the second set to open up a 2-0 lead.
#2 Carlos Alcaraz's net-rushing did the trick, but Daniil Medvedev held firm with his serve:
Alcaraz started venturing forward to the net quite often from the beginning of the third set, including opting for serve-and-volley on a few occasions. He displayed exceptional net skills to hit some stupendous volley winners, but, on a few occasions, the Russian's passing shots got the better of him.
After Alcaraz won the third set, Medvedev served superbly in the fourth. He broke Alcaraz in the sixth game before wrapping up the match. The defending champion saved three match points while being 3-5 down in the set, but had to give up in the end.
Medvedev won 82% and 75% of the points on his first and second serves, respectively, in the match, while Alcaraz managed just 69% and 48%, respectively.
