(September 6, 2023) FLUSHING, NY – No. 1 seed Carlos Alcaraz will take on No. 3 seed Daniil Medvedev for a place in the final on Friday.
Both men advanced with straight set victories on Wednesday at the US Open.
Medvedev of Russia, beat the heat and countryman Andrey Rublev 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 in the 2-hour, 48-minutes during the extreme heat of the afternoon.
The 2021 US Open champion complained on court “You cannot imagine,” he said. “One player (is) gonna die, and they’re gonna see.”
“The only thing that is a little bit, let’s call it dangerous, is that the question is: How far could we go?” Temperatures were in the mid-90s Fahrenheit.
Despite the complaints, the 27-year-old doesnt know what can be done to solve the problem. “The thing is that I’m not sure what can we do. Because probably we cannot stop the tournament for four days because it’s been what, three, four days it’s been brutal like this, because then it basically ruins everything, the TV, even the tickets, everything. It ruins everything.
“So I don’t think this could be done. Could we go to three sets when the conditions are like this? Also some guys are not going to be happy, no. You lose the first two sets and the match is done and you’re, like, Damn I wanted to come back.
“And at the same time I’m telling because maybe I’m going to finish my career and nothing is gonna happen and then it’s fine, then I’m talking for nothing, but the question is we don’t want something to happen and then say, Oh, my God, Medvedev said this a couple of years ago.
“But I don’t have the solution, because even if we say let’s play all the matches at night maybe on different stadiums, we saw Sinner-Zverev, they were not much better than us today with Andrey just because even at night New York can be really hot and humid.
“I don’t have real solutions but it’s still better to speak a little bit about it before something happens. It’s always better.”
Carlos Alcaraz is the defending champion at the US Open and is two wins away from repeating. No man has repeated at the Us Open since Roger Federer did it in 2008. The 20-year-old Spaniard dismantled No. 12 Alexander Zverev of Germany 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 during the evening session.
The Spaniard’s all-court game aggressive game dazzled fans on Wednesday night.
“I try to make the people enjoy watching tennis, watching the matches,” Alcaraz said during his on-court interview. “I’ve been trying to do different shots that probably the crowd are not used to seeing in the matches. … That’s what I’m trying — to put a show on,” said Alcaraz.
Alcaraz was asked about playing Medvedev:
“Well, last matches that I played against Daniil I played a tactical game played perfectly. You know, I did pretty well all the things that I had to do against him, so I think my game suits pretty well against that type of opponent, you know, like Daniil.
“So I gonna try to do the same things that I did, for example, in Indian Wells and in Wimbledon, and hopefully to get the win and play the same level that I played in that matches.”
