Daniil Medvedev admits he had to be selfish and ruthless and focus on making Jannik Sinner “suffer” after the Italian had a health scare in their Wimbledon quarter-final.
Medvedev came through an epic four-hour five-setter on Centre Court against the man who beat him in this year’s Australian Open final. He got revenge to win 6-7(7), 6-4, 7-6(4), 2-6, 6-3.
Sinner was forced off court for over 10 minutes after having his heart rate checked in the third set. The Italian world No.1 appeared notably unwell though returned to play out the match.
He recovered sufficiently to blow Medvedev away in the fourth set only to ultimately suffer his first defeat of the year on grass.
Afterwards, Medvedev was asked in his on-court interview: “He wasn’t feeling well at one point. He left the court and came out really fighting. In that situation you have to stay selfish and not get sentimental… how do you deal with that?”
And the Russian replied: “Yeah it’s actually very tough. At one moment I could feel he doesn’t move that well and it’s always tricky because you want to play more points to make him suffer a little bit more. In a good way!
“At the same time you know he at one point is going to say, ‘I cannot run anymore so I’m going to go full power to win the third set.’
“In a way I would prefer to not have this situation but everything is well when it ends well so I’m pretty happy.”
The world No. 5 added: “I knew if I wanted to beat Jannik it needs to be a tough match. He’s not anymore a guy you can beat easy. Even I felt at one moment he was not feeling that good but I knew this can get away then he started playing better.
“I’m happy that I managed to still stay at a high level. I think it was great points, great match. I’m really happy to win and really happy with my game and looking forward.”
Medvedev could face the All England Club’s reigning champion Carlos Alcaraz in the semi-finals if the Spaniard comes through American Tommy Paul in his own last-eight showdown.
And Medvedev admitted he’d be catching the action on Court No.1 after his win. The 27-year-old, who won the 2021 US Open, said: “It’s my first time winning two matches on Centre Court at Wimbledon.
“Usually I either win one or zero so this is a record already! I saw already the first set [of Alcaraz vs Paul]. It was raining so they only showed this match [Alcaraz vs Paul] on the scoreboard and at one moment I saw 4-4 and 50 minutes of play and thought, ‘What are they doing there?!’
“Going to watch a little bit now when I come back and then get ready for the winner. They play good matches so you guys should watch also!”
Medvedev and Sinner didn’t contest a single break point in an hour-long first set which went with serve until Sinner won the tiebreak.
The Russian immediately responded to win the second 6-4 before Sinner suffered his scare at 2-1 down in the third. The Italian had looked notably off colour, both in his face and in his play, but returned to play on and found form again.
Despite losing the third set in the match’s second tiebreak, he hammered his opponent 6-2 in the next to force a decider.
But Medvedev broke Sinner’s serve to move 3-1 up in the fifth and then saw it out on serve 6-3 to grind out a hard-earned victory and reach the semi-finals for a second successive year.
He lost in straight sets to Alcaraz 12 months ago and will be eager for revenge if he faces the same opponent on Friday.
