2024-01-20 11:58:00
There are these players who haunt others throughout their career. It is still too early to say whether Daniil Medvedev will occupy this role in that of Félix Auger-Aliassime, but the Russian seems well on his way to doing so.
For the seventh time in as many matches, Saturday in the third round of the Australian Open, the Russian showed the Quebecer the exit door.
And this time, it had nothing to do with this epic duel that the two men fought two years ago, on these same grounds in Melbourne, when Medvedev had to make up a deficit of two sets to zero, saving a match point in the process, to defeat “FAA” in the quarter-finals.
No, in this third round clash played in prime time in Australia (7 p.m. local time, 3 a.m. Eastern time), the third seed this time looked like a leader throughout: 6- 3, 6-4 and 6-3, in 2 hours 09 minutes of play, despite heavy strikes from the Quebecer and a break made early in the second set.
The organizers had reserved the second most prestigious court on the site for the two players, the Margaret Court Arena, for this duel which could have sparked sparks between the former world number 1 and the former sixth, whom the ranking relegated to the role of 27e seeded for this fortnight due to its difficult 2023 season.
But the fire never caught. Especially because Medvedev, at 6’6″, is one of the best, if not the best in the world, on hard court.
Still too many gifts
He demonstrated it again on Saturday, with methodical play despite the four hours he had spent on the field two days ago, while the 23-year-old Quebecer once again got bogged down in his unforced errors (43 in this match).
If it could have progressed very well to the second round against French qualifier Hugo Grenier (he then made 46 in four rounds), this was not the case against the 2021 US Open champion.
Photo AFP
Good nonetheless
There will still have been some good things in this fortnight for Félix, even if he would certainly have liked it to be longer.
He will have passed the first round in a major tournament, a first since… the Australian Open last year, where he admitted defeat in the fourth round against the Czech Jiri Lehecka.
He was able to dig deep within himself to regain momentum in his first match, when the tenacious Austrian Dominic Thiem came back from two lost sets to tie the match.
Photo AFP
An emotional victory in five rounds and as many hours from which he will certainly be able to draw inspiration when his back is against the wall.
And he will not have gotten bogged down in bad thoughts against Grenier, in the second round, when the Frenchman, 178e in the world, won the second set.
Like a great victory
On the contrary, Auger-Aliassime came back with a confident attacking game to win the next two rounds, while on this completely crazy day of Wednesday, the favorites almost all worked very hard on the courts.
That’s already a big victory in itself, the day after a season where he certainly struggled with injuries, but also with his confidence.
While waiting to be able to rebuild a ranking that will prevent him from meeting these big names so early in the biggest tournaments.
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