Medvedev on Alcaraz: ‘Probably the toughest opponent I have faced’

Daniil Medvedev is one of the best problem solvers on the ATP Tour, freely moving from plan A to plan B and frustrating opponents with his extensive repertoire. But the 28-year-old met an all-too-familiar roadblock Friday at Wimbledon, where he fell in the semi-finals for the second straight year to Carlos Alcaraz.

“Probably in my career he's the toughest opponent I have faced,” Medvedev said of Alcaraz in his post-match press conference. “But I have time, I have time to try to do better. The match against Carlos was much closer than last year. Last year, I went out from the match and I was like, ‘Wow, that was a semi-final, one hour, 30 [minutes] or something like this.’ Very fast. He crushed me off the court," he added about last year's 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 defeat. "Today, I felt like that was not the case.”

Medvedev is drawing on positives from his two weeks at the All England Club, having earned a five-set quarter-final victory against World No. 1 Jannik Sinner. Even in Medvedev’s loss to Alcaraz, who won 6-7(1), 6-3, 6-4, 6-4, the fifth seed showed flashes of his best level, pushing the Spaniard for two hours, 55 minutes.

“I felt like I was much closer [than last year], was just a little bit worse in some important points, important moments. I feel like the plan itself, I was playing well and just it was not enough anyway," said Medvedev, fourth in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin. "Tough, tough match. Carlos plays well. I feel like the plan I came up with was working not so bad."

Alcaraz leads Medvedev 5-2 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series, with three of those meetings coming at SW19. Medvedev won the pair’s first encounter at Wimbledon in 2021, but has since lost five of their past six matches. His second win against the three-time major champion came at last year’s US Open in the semi-final round.

“He’s tough to play,” Medvedev said. “I felt like I was serving good, definitely not worse than the other matches. Only five aces. He seemed to touch almost every ball on the court, like running well. I made some good points. I could have finished some maybe at the net, but didn't manage to do it.

“In my opinion, he played much better than all the opponents I faced here before, and hence I lost. Not much more to add.”

The 2020 Nitto ATP Finals champion, who has claimed 20 tour-level titles, was asked to draw comparisons between the 21-year-old Alcaraz and the ‘Big Three’; Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.

“Carlos, I don't think he has anything from them. It's different game style,” Medvedev said. “I think where Carlos is different from many players, we all have a little bit of our preferences, someone prefers defence, someone prefers to counterattack, someone prefers to be super aggressive. He can do all of it.”

Holding a 33-10 season record and still searching for his first title since Rome last year, Medvedev turns his attention to the Paris Olympics, which begin 27 July.

“Here I'm going straightaway to play Olympics on clay. I don't know how it's going to be. It's not going to be easy. I'm not going to have much preparation because I managed to do a good tournament here,” said Medvedev.

“I have no idea how I'm going to handle it, if I'm going to be in peace, angry, or something like this. But, look, it's one tournament. I have my goals in my mind, doubles, mixed doubles is one of them, one of the big goals because, honestly speaking, I don't think I'm the favorite to win in singles or even to get a medal, but I'm going to try. I'm going to go there, enjoy it, and try my best on clay and then on hard courts after.”

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