Australian Open 2024: Daniil Medvedev in the semi-finals, battling five sets against Hurkacz

Daniel Medvedev. XinHua – Chu Chen

World No.3 Daniil Medvedev once again pushed himself to the limit on Wednesday to reach the semi-finals of the Australian Open, dismissing world No. 9 Hubert Hurkacz 7-6 ( 7/4), 2-6, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4, in just under four hours.

Medvedev, already a double finalist in Melbourne (2021 and 2022), will play his third semi-final there on Friday, his eighth in total in a Grand Slam. The 27-year-old Russian will face either world No.2 Carlos Alcaraz or No.6 Alexander Zverev, opposed in the evening in Melbourne.

The poster for the other semi-final of the men's draw has been known since the day before: it will oppose world No.1 Novak Djokovic, in search of a 25th unprecedented Grand Slam coronation and an eleventh at the Australian Open, to world No.4 Jannik Sinner.

Direction les demi-finales pour Medvedev ! ✅

Tombeur d'Hurkacz en cinq sets (7-6, 2-6, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4), le Russe affrontera Alcaraz ou Zverev pour une place en finale #HomeOfTennis #USOpen pic.twitter.com/xNaKl6uLMK

— Eurosport France (@Eurosport_FR) January 24, 2024

This is the second time in the Australian fortnight that Medvedev, who was playing his hundredth match in a Major tournament, came out in five sets.

"I just want to sleep now"

Against Hurkacz, he nevertheless scored a break ahead in the fourth set (4-2), but the Pole managed to come back to delay the deadline.

"There, right away, I am destroyed", said Medvedev after his victory, explaining that he had "lost concentration in the fourth set".

"So far, it's going well at the start of the matches, and that's what counts, then we have to try to win, and if we died at the end, it doesn't matter because we have a day off afterwards", he declared at a press conference .

Daniil Medvedev on playing without sleep after finishing last match at 4 a.m.

“When I was very young maybe til 21, I was going out. It wasn’t good for my tennis. I wasn’t playing as I’m playing now. But maybe some practices without sleep sometimes helped me play today. Let’s… pic.twitter.com/shZ09oWF2x

— The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) January 20, 2024

In the second round, the former world No.1 and winner of the 2021 US Open narrowly escaped, after being down two sets to zero by the Finn Emil Ruusuvuori (53rd), finally overturned 3-6, 6-7 (1/7), 6-4, 7-6 (7/1), 6-0.

The match then ended at 3:40 a.m. The Russian will enter his semi-final having already spent 16 hours and 18 minutes on the courts since the start of the tournament.

"Sometimes I see players like Hubi (Hubert Hurkacz, Editor's note) who play matches in five sets, win 7-6 in the fifth and I see them see you feel good in the locker room", Medvedev stressed.

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"I say to myself, wow, maybe it's a matter of metabolism, that it's genetic, I don' #39;really know nothing about it. I just know I'm tired", he continued. A physical state confirmed by the note left by Medvedev on the camera: in marker, the world No.3 wrote "Just want to sleep now", "I just want to sleep now".