Article Author:
Reuters
World No. 1 Daniil Medvedev and No. 4 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas advanced to the Cincinnati Open semifinals on Friday after defeating American threats Taylor Fritz and John Isner.
2019 Cincinnati champion Medvedev sharpened his game for an upcoming US Open title defense with his 7-6 (1) 6-3 win over No. 11-seeded Fritz. I was. It was a three-set slugfest with Isner, but it was enough for a 7-6 (5) 5-7 6-3 victory.
Medvedev's win was bolstered by his 18 aces, but one of his big players in the game, the unexploded Fritz, had three double faults. He was offset by just three.
Isner is the largest server in men's tennis with nearly 200 more aces than his closest rival, Nick Kyrgios, with 18 aces. , was still not enough to put a patient Greek opponent to rest.
It looked like a comfortable win for Medvedev, but the Russian saved his points in three sets in the opener before finally winning him 7–1 in a tiebreaker.
From that point on, Medvedev took control and grabbed the only break of the match early in the second. It was all it took to advance to the best four for his second year in a row in Cincinnati.
"In the first set, he was a little better than me," admitted Medvedev. "He had more chances than my serve, but I managed to keep.
That would have been normal.
"But I managed to stay in the set, so I won the match."
Tsitsipas took the lead in his 7-5 tiebreak after the first set when neither player had a chance to break.
The first chance to break finally came in the 11th game of the second set. Isner converted on his three chances, leading 6–5 and holding serve to send the contest to the decider.
With 4-3 and Isner's serve, Tsitsipas finally had his only chance to break, and he put it to good use. A 5-3 long he hit the air with jubilation as he shot and saw the American return his sailing. lead.
"I think the most important thing for him is to be patient, because there will be a lot of situations that are really out of your control," said Tsitsipas. All in all I got very few points…I couldn't stay there and play one more ball and give him much work." (Toronto's Steve Keating Edited by Hugh Lawson)
