(Tennis news) Attila Balazs, Christopher O’Connell, and Sebastian Baez were all defeated by Medvedev in order to advance to the fourth round, where Alex de Minaur awaited. His most recent encounter with the Australian, at the Canadian Open last month, was one of his two most recent defeats.

De Minaur won the first set by winning five straight games, but Medvedev came back to win a close second set. The Russian then completely dominated the match, winning the third set with just one game remaining and the fourth set with equal ease to win 2-6, 6-4, 6-1, 6-2.

To advance to the fourth round, Rublev defeated three French players, Arthur Cazaux, Gael Monfils, and Arthur Rinderknech. After that, he competed against Jack Draper to go to the quarterfinals.

The first several sets were shared between the two as a single service break proved to be the determining factor. In the third set, Draper had a break advantage, but Rublev flipped the script to win the match.

In the fourth set, Draper was defeated by Rublev. In the fifth game, the Russian took advantage of a mistake to go ahead 3-2. At 5-3, he had two match opportunities that he might have used to end the match, but he hung on to the lead and took control of the next game to win 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Head-to-Head

In their head-to-head matchup, Medvedev leads Rublev 5-2. In their previous meeting in the 2023 Dubai Tennis Championships, the former prevailed in straight sets.

Predictions

After losing the opening set, Medvedev improved to overcome de Minaur and end his two-match losing run. He delivered 11 aces and won 80% of his first serve points. In addition, he made 30 wins overall while making 32 unforced errors.

Rublev also fared well against Draper on serves. He won 84% of his first serve points and rained down 14 aces. Additionally, he made 25 unforced errors compared to 45 wins.

Rublev, who has fallen in the quarterfinals of the Majors eight times, will now be looking to break the curse. Additionally, Medvedev was the aggressor in two of those losses, one of which occurred in the US Open in 2020.

Medvedev is unconcerned in general by Rublev’s serve and forehand. The former World No. 1 offsets the advantage of huge servers by favouring to return the ball from well behind the baseline.

Rublev has already shown that the strain of making it to a Major semifinal is too much for him to bear. He won’t likely be a threat to Medvedev unless he can maintain his composure.

Also read: Karolina Muchova set to play Sorana Cirstea at US Open 23