NEW YORK — Top spot Janik sinner Used an aggressive, net-rushing style to reach the US Open semifinals for the first time, beating the 2021 champion daniil medvedev They won 6-2, 1-6, 6-1, 6-4 on Wednesday night.
Sinner, a 23-year-old from Italy, was cleared of doping less than a week before the US Open began after twice testing positive for anabolic steroids in March. He will now face the 25th seed. Jack Draper The two sides clashed against Britain for a place in the title match on Friday. Draper won the only match between the two at the 2021 Queen’s Club.
After being eliminated in Week 1 novak djokovic And carlos alcarazSinner became the title favorite and is now the only man left in the field with a Grand Slam trophy. He won his first title at the Australian Open in January by defeating Medvedev in the final despite losing the first two sets.
The match was unusually volatile as they took turns dominating one set after another.
At first, Sinner was better. Then that role was taken over by Medvedev, who finished runner-up to Djokovic at Flushing Meadows last year and Rafael Nadal In 2019. Sinner then regained the lead in the third set. In the fourth set, at 3-3, Sinner surged ahead, saving two break points, then breaking Medvedev to take a 5-3 lead.
“We know each other very well. … We knew it was going to be a very physical contest,” said Sinner, who lost to Medvedev in five sets at Wimbledon in July. “The first two sets were weird because whoever made the first break started rolling again.”
The key takeaway: Sinner won points 28 times on 33 attempts at the net, including 9 of 11 serve-and-volley attempts.
“We have worked very hard on this aspect of the game. We are trying to bring some newness to the game,” Sinner said.
Medvedev’s performance was particularly uneven. He hit just one fewer winner than Sinner but made 19 more unforced errors.
“Sometimes you think you’re doing everything well and then you miss and then you have question marks and so on,” Medvedev said. “Maybe today I was going for a little bit more risky shot, I just missed a little bit more. As I said, at one point I got lost in my misses.”
Sinner is the third Italian man to reach the US Open semifinals since the start of the Open era in 1968, joining Corrado Barazzutti (1977) and Matteo Berrettini (2019). He also became the fourth-youngest man to reach the semifinals at all four majors in the Open era, trailing only Djokovic, Nadal and Jim Courier.
Medvedev is 9-2 in major quarterfinals in his career, with the only other loss coming at the 2021 French Open Stefanos TsitsipasHis exit means there are no former US Open champions left in this year’s draw.
The second semifinal will be held on Friday Number 12 Taylor Fritz vs No. 20 Francis Tiafoe It was the first all-American men’s meet at a major competition in 19 years.
This report used information from ESPN Stats & Information and the Associated Press.