London (EFE)
With the training tracks covered, due to the incessant rain all morning, Alcaraz, in addition to Novak Djokovic, Jannik Sinner and Daniil Medvedev, had to do the usual half-hour warm-up on track 1, the second most important of the tournament.
There, together with his brother Álvaro, the world number one did the last exercises before facing Medvedev on the center court in the second shift of the day, that is, after the Djokovic-Sinner that will start at 1:30 p.m. local time. EFE
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Carlos Alcaraz and Danil Medvedev, semifinal duel at Wimbledon
“It’s like an octopus,” admits Carlos Alcaraz when he hears the name of Daniil Medvedev. “He does almost everything well,” adds the Murcian, who is aware that this Friday he will have before him the fiercest rival he has encountered along the way at this Wimbledon and also the most experienced: the Russian is the only one at who has faced who knows what it is to win a Grand Slam.
He did it at the 2021 US Open, when he took advantage of a Novak Djokovic devoured by the anxiety of being one match away from completing the Grand Slam, an achievement that only Rod Laver, in 1962 and 1969, has achieved in men’s tennis.
Medvedev broke a barrier that resists many other tennis players of his generation, such as Alexander Zverev, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Casper Ruud and Felix Auger-Aliassime, to name just a few. He was crowned number one and aspired to finally overthrow the tyranny of the ‘Big Three’.
However, there was a moment that threw all that to the ground. The final of Australia 2022. The one from Moscow had Rafael Nadal submitted 6-2, 7-6 (5) and 3-2 40-0, with Nadal’s serve.
He was one point and two games away from adding his second consecutive Grand Slam and taking two members of the fantastic three ahead. It was a pinnacle point in his career, but as is well known, the Spaniard raised that match and mentally destroyed the Russian, who made a 2022 to forget taking into account the expectations that he had generated.
He did not reach a single Masters 1,000 final, fell in the round of 16 at Roland Garros and US Open (he could not play Wimbledon due to the ban on Russians and Belarusians) and in the ATP Finals he did not go beyond the group stage. He came out of the top five in the world and the effervescence in him evaporated.
Melbourne, at the beginning of this 2023, did not bring back good memories either and he lost in the third round against Sebastian Korda, which made him leave the ‘top ten’ for the first time in two and a half years.
A big enough blow to think that Medvedev had stagnated and that he would be one of those tennis players who, after reaching his peak of success, would collapse.
And the opposite happened. The Muscovite took Rotterdam, Doha and Dubai in one fell swoop; in the latter defeating Djokovic. He lost in the Indian Wells final against Alcaraz and took the one in Miami. He won 27 of 29 matches and made it to the clay court tour, where he began a personal battle against clay. “
I don’t like eating dirt. I don’t know if other people like it, but I don’t. I am full of dirt, in my shoes, my socks… ”, explained the Russian, who despite his complaints made the quarterfinals in Monte Carlo, the third round in Madrid and won in Rome. Sufficient results for him to be given as a favorite at Roland Garros.
In Paris he disappointed and lost in the first round against Thiago Seyboth Wild, number 172 in the world, but Medvedev was happy.
“I’m happy that the land has ended,” said the Russian, who did not make a great grass tour prior to Wimbledon, with a first-round defeat at s’Hertogenbosch and Halle in the quarterfinals.
Medvedev praises Alcaraz
But the course was fixed at Wimbledon. Wins against Arthur Fery, Adrian Mannarino, Marton Fucsovics, Jiri Lehecka and Christopher Eubanks, before a matchup against the man who only allowed him to make five games against him in the Indian Wells final.
“I think that game is not going to count for much here. That court was very slow, here the serve is more important. There I couldn’t get free points with the service”, replied Medvedev, who praised Alcaraz.
“It is very interesting to play against Carlos. He is an incredible player and he is only 20 years old. His power (it is the most remarkable thing). When he was 17, he wasn’t that long ago, he was much less mature, which is normal. It failed a lot. Everyone could see that he was amazing, but we all wondered if he was going to find a way to miss less using the same power. And he has achieved it ”.
“He’s very tall and he’s playing very well on grass,” answers Alcaraz. “He is having a great year and I already lost the first game we played on this surface, so I have to learn from that. He is very complete, I think Rublev has said it several times: he is like an octopus, he hits all the balls. He is a spectacular athlete ”.
These semifinals, the first for both at the All England Club, will mark the third duel between the two tennis players. The first was taken by Medvedev, in the second round of Wimbledon 2021, when Alcaraz was barely 18 years old and had just played the first match of his life in five sets, and the second was in the aforementioned Indian Wells final, with the Spanish already among the best in the world.