By Richard Pagliaro | Friday, February 17, 2023
Medvedev dethroned the defending champion 6-2, 6-4 sweeping into his second semifinal of the season at the ABN AMRO Open today.
Photo credit: ABN AMRO Open Facebook
Daniil Medvedev is raising the roof in Rotterdam—and prolonging his perfect record against Felix Auger-Aliassime.
Maintaining his mastery in a one-sided rivalry, Medvedev dethroned defending champion Auger-Aliassime 6-2, 6-4 sweeping into his second semifinal of the season at the ABN AMRO Open today.
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“Today was my best match of the week, but I have to build on this,” Medvedev said. “Usually, the best week’s you play, many times you’re going to play your best tennis in the last match, so that’s definitely a goal.
"But I’m happy with my level today, beating someone like Felix in straight sets.”
Former world No. 1 Medvedev broke serve four times and won 18 of 27 points played on Auger-Aliassime's second serve defeating the third-seeded Canadian for the fifth time in as many meetings.
The victory vaults Medvedev into tomorrow's semifinals vs. 2018 finalist Grigor Dimitrov. The 11th-ranked Medvedev is on the brink of a Top 10 return in the live rankings if he can reach Sunday's final.
Challenging Auger-Aliassime with his flat, low drives, Medvedev joins Australian Open finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas and Olympic gold-medal champion Alexander Zverev as the third man to register five Tour-level wins over the world No. 8.
Auger-Aliassime led the ATP in indoor wins last season scoring 31 indoor match victories, but Medvedev was moving fluidly and striking with purpose powering through five consecutive games to snatch a one-set lead.
A year ago, Medvedev saved a match point roaring back from a two-set deficit to edge Auger-Aliassime in five grueling sets in the 2022 Australian Open quarterfinals.
Once he built a one-set lead today, Medvedev methodically advanced it.
The defending champion double-faulted into net to donate the break and a 2-1 second-set lead to Medvedev.
The 2021 US Open champion won three of the last four games closing in one hour, 23 minutes.
Fourteen of Medvedev's 15 career titles have come on hard courts, including seven indoors where his flat drives force opponents to try to lift replies.
The two-time Rotterdam semifinalist will face former world No. 3 Grigor Dimitrov for a spot in Sunday's final.
In today's first quarterfinal, a gritty Dimitrov denied two match points out-dueling Alex de Minaur 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(6) in a two hour, 33-minute thriller.
Showing calm under stress, Dimitrov has won all three tiebreaker sets he's played this week following his 7-6(4), 7-6(5) victory over fifth-seeded Hubert Hurkacz in the round of 16.
Today, Dimitrov delivered at cruch time saving five of eight break points. Dimitrov deployed his all-court skills winning 13 of 16 nets points to reach a Tour-level semifinal for the 12th consecutive season.
The 28th-ranked Bulgarian is playing for his first ATP Final since he was runner-up to Roger Federer at the 2018 Rotterdam.
The Medvedev vs. Dimitrov semifinal is a rematch of the 2019 US Open semifinals, which Medvedev swept in straight sets. Overall, Medvedev has won four of six meetings against Dimitrov, including a 6-4, 6-2 victory in the Vienna semifinals last October en route to his 15th career championship.
The 11th-ranked Medvedev rides an eight-match winning streak in ATP 500-level tournaments into Saturday's semifinal.