Daniil Medvedev gained revenge for his Australian Open final defeat to Jannik Sinner by knocking the world No.1 out of Wimbledon. The Italian needed a medical timeout for illness during the third set but recovered to force a fifth set.
But unlike in January in Melbourne, this time the Russian outlasted Sinner in this slugfest to return to the semi-finals here for the second consecutive year.
The former world No.1 eventually saw off the current top-ranked player 6-7 6-4 7-6 2-6 6-3 in exactly four hours under the roof on Centre Court.
He will face defending champion Carlos Alcaraz, who beat Tommy Paul in four sets, on Friday in a repeat of last year’s semi-final which the Spaniard won in straight sets.
Medvedev, the 2021 US Open winner, has reached six Grand Slam finals but all of them on hardcourts.
Sinner became world No.1 for the first time after the French Open – and won his first grasscourt title in Halle last month. And he entered his third Grand Slam semi-final of the year as the favourite after winning his last five matches against Medvedev starting in Miami last year.
The Russian had won their first six. And the Italian had won 11 of his last 14 matches against top-five players at Tour-level since losing in the semi-final to Novak Djokovic here last year.
By contrast, Medvedev had lost his last five matches against top-five opposition.
Sinner came back from two sets down to win the Melbourne final but this quarter-final took a different path. The first set went with serve to an inevitable tiebreak.
At 5-5, Sinner gifted Medvedev a set point with a double fault but the Russian hit a short forehand wide. And the 2021 US Open champion then presented the Italian with the lead when he served a double fault on the Australian Open champion’s second set point.
Medvedev finally got the first break points of the match after 71 minutes with the score at 1-1 15-40. And he made the break when Sinner missed a forehand down the line – and took his first set point with an ace to draw the match level after one hour and 44 minutes.
Sinner was broken again to trail 1-2 in the third set – and then took a medical timeout for illness and had his pulse taken before leaving the court for treatment. He also looked to be struggling with his knee.
The Italian attempted to keep rallies shorter by combining booming groundstrokes and serve-and-volley tactics with delicate drop shots, and played two consecutive forehand dinks in the seventh game. He blasted one 93mph forehand winner past the Russian after one drop shot as the colour slowly returned to the Italian’s cheeks.
Serving for the set at 5-4, Medvedev committed three unforced errors to be broken for the first time during a nightmare run where he lost 11 out of 12 points.
The No.5 seed saved two set points at 5-6 to force a second tiebreak and then took his first set point with an ace.
But this see-saw encounter changed again when Sinner broke again to lead 2-1 in the fourth set with a forehand drop shot winner.
He raced to the set in only 24 minutes when Medvedev slapped a backhand long.
But Sinner’s level dropped again in the final set and he was broken in the fourth game to trail 1-3. Serving for the match at 5-3, Medvedev took his first match point with a superb backhand winner.
