Russian tennis star and World No.3 Daniil Medevdev has yet again overcome a tough battle in order to make to the semifinal at Australian Open 2024 on Wednesday, January 24.
Medvedev defeated Hubert Hurkacz in five-set thriller - 7-6, 2-6, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 in the quarterfinals of the Men's Singles at Melbourne Park. Hurkacz gave a tough challenge to the Russian tennis star by stretching the match to five sets.
However, Daniil Medvedev managed to pull off a thrilling victory in the final set to book his berth in the semifinal of the Australian Open 2024.
Daniil Medevdev was playing his ninth quarterfinal of his Grand Slam career, out of which, three appearances came at Australian Open. The 27-year-old won the opening set by winning the tiebreaker against Hubert Hurkacz However, Polish star managed to pick up pace and made a comeback to take the second set.
In the third set, Medvedev recovered from previous set defeat and dug deeper to save five match points and take a 2-1 lead. In the following set, Daniil Medvedev took an early lead and looked like the Russian star would wind up the match soon. But, Hubert Hurkacz didn't give up and fought back to win the five out of the six games, taking the contest to a decider.
In the fifth and final set of the match, Medvedev stamped his authority with an early break. He reached the match point soon and closed out the game with a drop shot to make it to the semifinal.
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'I am so destroyed right now': Daniil Medvedev
Russian tennis star Daniil Medvedev found it difficult to better off Hubert Hurkacz as the polish player kept coming back after every set defeat to make the contest thrilling.
Medvedev admitted that he was 'physically' tough at the end of second set but he kept his game going.
"I am so destroyed right now. I was feeling very tough physically at the end of the second set already and I was like ‘OK, I need to stay tough." the World No.3 said in on-court interview.
"He (Hurkacz) played good, I don’t even feel tough on myself. I’m happy that I managed to win and I really like the match point." he added.
Daniil Medvedev will face either Alexander Zverev or Carlos Alcaraz in the semifinal of Men's Singles at Rod Laver Arena.