Wimbledon | Medvedev dismisses Sinner, will meet Alcaraz in the semi-finals

(Wimbledon) After four hours of a tough fight, punctuated by a momentary physical failure of his opponent, Daniil Medvedev defeated Jannik Sinner and qualified on Tuesday for the semi-finals of Wimbledon, where he will meet his tormentor from last year, the defending champion Carlos Alcaraz.

“I knew that to beat Jannik, I had to win a very tough match. He’s not the guy you beat easily anymore,” Medvedev said after his 6-7 (7/9), 6-4, 7-6 (7/4), 2-6, 6-3 victory over the world number one.

Sinner suffered a physical breakdown at the start of the third inning, when he suddenly appeared extremely weak and dizzy.

At the change of ends at 2-1 for his opponent and after conceding the break, he called the doctor. Pale and with his eyes in a daze, he took a time-out to leave the court and receive treatment.

Despite an obvious weakness, he kept his serve on his return to the court.

For a while, he tried to shorten the exchanges against an opponent who, naturally like him, enjoys long rallies.

“These are always difficult moments to manage because I saw that he wasn’t moving well at one point. So we want to make him run, so that he suffers a little more. But at the same time, we know that he will end up saying to himself that since he can’t run anymore, he will try everything. And that’s what he did! But hey, for me, all’s well that ends well,” Medvedev noted.

Indeed, he ended up taking his revenge for the Australian Open final in January, where Sinner won in five sets.

Until then, the Italian had been on a run of five consecutive victories against Medvedev, but it is the 28-year-old Russian who will try to reach the final on Friday.

To do so, he will have to face Alcaraz again, who clearly dominated him in the semis last year before beating Novak Djokovic in five sets in the final. Because the Spaniard beat the American Tommy Paul, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2 and 6-2.

“At the start of the first set and the second, I felt like I was playing on clay, with very long rallies. Each point lasted 10, 15 shots,” commented the world number three player.

The first round alone lasted 72 minutes.

“After losing the first set, I had to stay mentally strong. But I knew that the road was long, that the match was going to last. So I hung on and I’m very happy to have found the solutions and the right path,” the 21-year-old added.

For the future, Alcaraz, who beat Medvedev last year in the semi-finals, is obviously hoping for the “same result”.

But he tempers his enthusiasm. “He’s really a great player. He just beat Jannik Sinner, who is the best player at the moment, that means he’s in great shape,” he added.

Vekic-Paolini

In the women’s draw, Croatian Donna Vekić qualified for her first Grand Slam semi-final by beating the unexpected New Zealander Lulu Sun (123^e world and qualifying), 5-7, 6-4 and 6-1.

Having undergone knee surgery after the 2021 Australian Open and sidelined again with an injury for two months at the start of the 2022 season, Vekić struggled to contain her tears before leaving court n^o 1.

“These two years have been very complicated. I didn’t think I would find the level I had even at the end of last season. So achieving the best Grand Slam result of my career makes me very proud of myself and all the work accomplished,” she then explained.

At 28, she had never reached the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam – reaching the US Open in 2019 and the Australian Open in 2023.

She will face Italian Jasmine Paolini on Thursday, a finalist at Roland-Garros, who very easily got rid of American Emma Navarro, 6-2 and 6-1.

Dabrowski and Routliffe reach quarter-finals in women’s doubles

Ottawa’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand partner Erin Routliffe reached the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles at Wimbledon with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Romania’s Elena-Gabriela Ruse and Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk on Tuesday.

Dabrowski and Routliffe, the second seeds at the All England Club, earned the only service break of the first set to take a 5-3 lead. They won the set in the next game.

Ruse and Kostyuk double-faulted on break point to give Dabrowski and Routliffe a 3-1 lead in the second set.

The 2023 US Open champions were not troubled after that, earning another break of serve in the sixth game and then closing out the lead in the next game.

In the next round, Dabrowski and Routliffe will face eighth-seeded Czech Barbora Krejcikova and German Laura Siegemund.

With the Canadian Press