Cincinnati Tennis in New York – Defending Champ Medvedev Exits, Djokovic with an Easy Win, Now 21-0 in 2020

(August 26, 2020) Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut ousted defending champ Daniil Medvedev, rallying for a 1-6, 6-4, 6-3 win to get to his third Masters Series final four. The Russian Medvedev was up a set and 4-3 before Bautista Agut began the charge.

“I just started really bad today,” the winner said to media. “Today I felt a big difference with the conditions today from the last two days, and, well, I felt the court much slower.

“My hitting point was not great. I was missing a lot of balls. And just said to me that I had to compete, to try to do something different to stay closer in the score, and don’t give up until the end of the match. And then I could start playing better and better.”

“It’s never easy to come back and play good at first,” said the Spaniard. “I have to be patient, to try to enjoy every single match I play here after six months without competing. Just pleased and happy to be in the semifinals.”

Novak Djokovic, who dismantled Jan-Lennard Struff 6-3, 6-1 now is the only player remaining at Cincinnati event, being played at the US Open, to have won a Masters Series event title.

Djokovic is now 21-0 in 2020.

Djokovic evaluated the match: “Struff, being a big guy, he relies a lot on his serve, first serve. It’s a huge weapon of his. But he wasn’t serving that great, especially in the second set. Gave me a lot of looks on the second serve.

“Once we were in the rally, I thought I had a better chance to win the point. So I thought I served very well. That has helped a lot, to put additional pressure on his service games. And I just tried to, you know, put as many returns back in play as I possibly could.

“First set he started aggressively in the first couple of service games of mine. There was couple times, 30-All, there was some points where I defended well. If he had an early break, maybe things could have gone in a different direction, but I was just very comfortable on the court today, even though it was swirly. It was cooler than the last couple of days. Not as much humidity. So that probably slowed the ball down a little bit and helped, you know, helped my game and helped me against Struff today.”

The world No. 1, who was nursing a neck injury in the beginning of the tournament said that right now it’s not a concern.

“It’s still not 100%, but it’s very close to that, ‘ noted Djokovic. I have been gaining more range just on my movement of the neck every single day.

So, I mean, I have absolutely no complaints. I mean, I can serve normally for second serve, so everything is fine at the moment.

In women’s action, fourth-seeded Naomi Osaka beat No. 12 Anett Kontaveit 4-6, 6-2, 7-5. She’ll face No. 14 Elise Mertens, who defeated qualifier Jessica Pegula 6-1, 6-3.

More to follow…