Top seed Alcaraz will play Medvedev in semi. In the women’s tournament, Keys, Sabalenka, Gauff and Muchova will play for a place in the final tomorrow
Top seed Carlos Alcaraz defeated Alexander Zverev in straight sets on Wednesday, September 6, to cruise into the US Open semi-finals and keep his title defense on track. The Spaniard will play third seed Daniil Medvedev on Friday for a place in the final after sweeping Zverev aside 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 in another clinical performance.
Alcaraz was not at his spectacular best but dominated at critical moments with Zverev perhaps feeling the effects of a 4hr 41min outing in the last 16 in the tournament’s longest match so far.
Earlier on Wednesday, Daniil Medvedev advanced to the US Open semifinals for the fourth time in five years, overcoming fellow Russian Andrey Rublev and hot, humid conditions Wednesday 6-4, 6-3, 6-4. Medvedev, the third seed and 2021 US Open champion, appeared to be having breathing problems in the near 95°F (35°C) heat, twice calling for a doctor on changeovers.
But it didn’t seem to show in his play. Medvedev frequently traded long rallies with Rublev – 34 strokes being the longest – and scrambled for every shot. He ran nearly the length of the court to hit a winner off a drop shot in the final set to earn his first match point. Rublev saved that one and three more in an 18-point final game before finally succumbing on the fifth, with an exhausted forehand into the net.
“The only good thing I see in these conditions is both suffer,” a sweat-drenched Medvedev said in his on-court interview in a partially closed Arthur Ashe Stadium.
“Honestly at the end of the first set, I kind of couldn’t see the ball anymore. I kind of played with sensations. You just try to go for it, try to run, try to catch the ball.”
For Rublev, the No. 8 seed and such a close friend to Medvedev that he’s the godfather to his first-born daughter, it marked more Grand Slam frustration: It was his ninth trip to the quarterfinals of a major without advancing to the semis, and the third time he was denied by Medvedev.
Medvedev, who also appeared to have breathing problems in his previous four-set win against Alex de Minaur, at one point in the first set was checked by a doctor with a stethoscope and administered an inhaler. While toweling off sweat midway through the third set, he grumbled to a courtside camera, “One player gonna die and they’re going to see.”
