For the third time this season, Jannik Sinner will lock horns with Daniil Medvedev at a Grand Slam event.
The world No.1 is through to the quarter-finals of the US Open for the second time in his career after beating Tommy Paul 7-6(3), 7-6(5), 6-1, on Monday. Sinner experienced issues with his first serve and only managed to get 49% of those in. However, when he did get his first serve in, he won 39 out of 48 points played. It is the 12th tournament in a row that he has reached at least the last eight this season.
Awaiting him in the next round will be Medvedev, who won the tournament in 2021 and reached the final on two other occasions. Including last year when he was denied the title by Novak Djokovic.
“Tough match. It’s gonna be a lot of rallies.” Sinner said of his upcoming showdown.
“Hopefully I’ll be ready physically. It’s gonna be a physical and mental match. I won in Australia. He won in Wimbledon..both in 5 sets.
“Hopefully it will be a good match. We’ll try to do our best on court.”
The two players have faced each other 12 times on the Tour so far with Medvedev winning seven of those matches, including their most recent meeting at Wimbledon. However, their rivalry is a tale of two halves with the Russian beating his Sinner six times in a row before losing to him five consecutive times.
Medvedev secured his place in the US Open quarter-finals by crushing Portugal’s Nuno Borges 6-0, 6-1, 6-3. He has only dropped one set in the tournament so far which was in the first round against Dusan Lajovic.
“I will try to think more about Wimbledon than Australian Open,” said Medvedev.
“I feel like in a way we know our game, what we will try to bring on the table, and then it comes to always, you know, this moment’s deuce, breakpoint, maybe try to surprise him or not, what he will do, what I will do.”
Sinner and Medvedev are two out of three top-five seeds to make it through to the quarter-finals. The other to do so is Alexander Zverev who will next play Taylor Fritz. Whoever wins the match will then play either British rising star Jack Draper or Alex de Minaur for a place in the final.
