Daniil Medvedev won his second consecutive three-setter on Friday at the Erste Bank Open to advance to the semi-finals at the Vienna ATP 500. The defending champion and top seed played a brilliant final set to clinch a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 victory in a bruising battle against Karen Khachanov, one day after coming back from a set down to defeat Grigor Dimitrov.
By matching his personal-best season tally of 63 wins from 2021, Medvedev (63-14) moved level with Carlos Alcaraz (63-9) for most wins this season.
"I hope I can get one more, you never know," he said of that milestone. "Tennis is a strong sport and we have strong opponents. So hopefully I can get one more win at least or maybe more. I have had an amazing season... But it's not finished yet, so I want to try to finish it even stronger."
The 27-year-old is now within two victories of his first successful title defence on the ATP Tour; Medvedev has 20 tour-level singles titles but has never won a single event more than once.
Through to the 49th tour-level semi-final of his career, the World No. 3's latest effort improved him to 11-3 this season in quarter-finals, including a 9-1 mark on hard courts.
Against the eighth-seeded Khachanov, Medvedev saw home leads of 3-0 in the first and final sets without facing a break point in either. In addition to the first-strike tennis his strong serving allowed him to play, Medvedev also flashed his athleticism and his defensive abilities time and again to frustrate Khachanov.
Khachanov had an opening at 15/30 in the final game but netted a would-be forehand winner from midcourt. Medvedev made the most of the freebie to close out the match in two hours, 15 minutes.
"It was a very close match, so of course mentally you have to be strong and it was a long one," he assessed. "But at the end, one break each set. So I'm happy that I managed to make two, and he only made one."
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While Medvedev has already secured his place at the Nitto ATP Finals, Khachanov's defeat all but ended his hopes for Turin qualification. Khachanov moved up two places to 14th in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin this week, but remains 895 points behind Holger Rune for eighth place, with just the Rolex Paris Masters and ATP 250 events in Sofia and Metz remaining before the cutoff.
Next up for Medvedev in Vienna will be fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Tsitsipas moved to within two wins of his second title of the season when he defeated Croatian wild card Borna Gojo 7-6(4), 7-5.
The Greek, who is sixth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin, fired 26 winners and found his best level deep in both sets to reach his sixth tour-level semi-final of the year after one hour and 51 minutes.
"It feels great," Tsitsipas said. "I kept fighting and didn't lose faith. In the tie-break, what a great way to end it by fighting and giving so much on the court. I felt it was a matter of keeping the ball deep and attacking when the ball was short."
Tsitsipas is making his fourth appearance in Vienna and had never advanced beyond the second round at the ATP 500 before this week. The World No. 7 is chasing his second trophy of 2023, having triumphed in Los Cabos.
By matching his personal-best season tally of 63 wins from 2021, Medvedev (63-14) moved level with Carlos Alcaraz (63-9) for most wins this season.
"I hope I can get one more, you never know," he said of that milestone. "Tennis is a strong sport and we have strong opponents. So hopefully I can get one more win at least or maybe more. I have had an amazing season... But it's not finished yet, so I want to try to finish it even stronger."
Athleticism off the charts@DaniilMedwed | @ErsteBankOpen | #erstebankopen pic.twitter.com/hK0iJKjEQE
— ATP Tour (@atptour) October 27, 2023
The 27-year-old is now within two victories of his first successful title defence on the ATP Tour; Medvedev has 20 tour-level singles titles but has never won a single event more than once.
Through to the 49th tour-level semi-final of his career, the World No. 3's latest effort improved him to 11-3 this season in quarter-finals, including a 9-1 mark on hard courts.
Against the eighth-seeded Khachanov, Medvedev saw home leads of 3-0 in the first and final sets without facing a break point in either. In addition to the first-strike tennis his strong serving allowed him to play, Medvedev also flashed his athleticism and his defensive abilities time and again to frustrate Khachanov.
Khachanov had an opening at 15/30 in the final game but netted a would-be forehand winner from midcourt. Medvedev made the most of the freebie to close out the match in two hours, 15 minutes.
"It was a very close match, so of course mentally you have to be strong and it was a long one," he assessed. "But at the end, one break each set. So I'm happy that I managed to make two, and he only made one."
[ATP APP]
While Medvedev has already secured his place at the Nitto ATP Finals, Khachanov's defeat all but ended his hopes for Turin qualification. Khachanov moved up two places to 14th in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin this week, but remains 895 points behind Holger Rune for eighth place, with just the Rolex Paris Masters and ATP 250 events in Sofia and Metz remaining before the cutoff.
Next up for Medvedev in Vienna will be fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Tsitsipas moved to within two wins of his second title of the season when he defeated Croatian wild card Borna Gojo 7-6(4), 7-5.
The Greek, who is sixth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin, fired 26 winners and found his best level deep in both sets to reach his sixth tour-level semi-final of the year after one hour and 51 minutes.
"It feels great," Tsitsipas said. "I kept fighting and didn't lose faith. In the tie-break, what a great way to end it by fighting and giving so much on the court. I felt it was a matter of keeping the ball deep and attacking when the ball was short."
Tsitsipas is making his fourth appearance in Vienna and had never advanced beyond the second round at the ATP 500 before this week. The World No. 7 is chasing his second trophy of 2023, having triumphed in Los Cabos.