Daniil Medvedev is into his first grand slam semi-final after defeating Stan Wawrinka 7-6(6) 6-3 3-6 6-1.
The Russian overcame early injury concerns and a powerful Stan Wawrinka in four sets to reach the US Open semi-final.
It was a bizarre match as Medvedev played the smarter tennis to reach his first grand slam semi-final in New York.
Next for Medvedev is Roger Federer or Grigor Dimitrov.
After playing US Open villain for his last two matches, there was a mixed reaction for Medvedev as he looked for the early break.
That is exactly what the Russian got after a positive start with Wawrinka unable to power past him in the early stages of the contest.
Although there were quite a few double faults from Medvedev, he managed to obtain his focus and hang on to his early advantage.
As for the Swiss, five break point opportunities came and went as he couldn’t take advantage of a physically compromised Medvedev.
A medical time-out and further taping was needed to resolve an upper-leg issues as he was struggling to keep the rallies long, which was his main strength.
When serving for the set, the world number five couldn’t deny his more experienced opponent any further as he conceded the break for 5-5.
From then on, it looked like the 34 year-old would strike the crucial blow as it looked increasingly likely that Medvedev would retire.
However a change in tactics to rush Wawrinka was deeply effective as he took a bizarre tiebreak 8-6, despite being pegged back from 5-2 up.
A deeply frustrated Wawrinka had no answer as he couldn’t outsmart and outthink his way past the 5th seed in the second set.
There was a number of forehand unforced errors that gave Medvedev the crucial and only break of the set in the fourth game.
In an amazing turn of events, the Cincinnati champion closed out the set in 33 minutes to give himself a two sets to love lead.
Despite losing the first two sets, Wawrinka stuck with his experience and fire-power in the third set as he raced out to a 3-0 lead.
More fatigued shots from the Russian were present as he looked to slowly run out of tank as he wanted to conserve as much energy as possible.
Some great angles as well as gutsy serving saw the former US Open champion survive a 12 minute ninth game to seal the third set.
An outSTANding set!
The 2016 champion serves out the third set 6-3 to force a fourth with Medvedev.@stanwawrinka | #USOpen pic.twitter.com/82j4PKFusP
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 3, 2019
Although the third set sparked some life into the match, there was no sign of life for the Swiss’ hopes of reaching the semi-finals here.
A couple of very loose and uncharacteristic games handed Medvedev two breaks of serve in the set as the Russian’s effective tennis once again prevailed.
The win means he will contest his first grand slam semi-final in a match he looked unlikely to win in the first set due to injury concerns.
Next for Medvedev is Federer or Dimitrov on Friday.
