THEh, Canada – not a bad contribution from the country of winter sports to increase the operating temperature at the Australian Open. A day after Denis Shapovalov’s five-set game against Rafael Nadal, Felix Auger-Aliassime followed suit and took on number two in the world and the tournament, Daniil Medvedev.
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But like the friend in the same place, the second Canadian also left the field after a defeat in five sets (7: 6, 6: 3, 6: 7, 5: 7, 4: 6), but after a great performance that die entertained people at the Rod Laver Arena at the midnight hour with a double whammy.
How Medvedev got out of the number after two lost sets, how he fended off a match point from the Canadian at the end of the fourth set, he didn’t really know afterwards. In the beginning, it was obvious that, unlike Auger-Aliassime, he seemed a little sluggish: he played as if he were leading, but he was soon behind.
Exciting and worth seeing
Maybe it was a sign from heaven that there was still hope for the turning point. He was leading in the tiebreak of the third set when it started to rain and the roof over the arena closed. And in the seven minutes it took, he sorted himself out. And the last impulse was certainly provided by the opponent’s match ball at 4:5 in the fourth set, which he fought off with a strong serve.
The Canadian continued to play courageously, but Medvedev had long since stepped on the gas, and what the two put together in the last set was extremely exciting and worth seeing. An early break to make it 2-1 put the Russians on the road to victory, and the game ended more than 70 minutes after the opponent’s match point. It lasted four hours and 42 minutes, more than two and a half hours longer than the performance of the man Medvedev will play in Friday’s semifinals.
Stefanos Tsitsipas offered a sovereign performance in three sets in the win against Jannik Sinner from Italy (6: 2, 6: 4, 6: 3), and he had the rest of the day’s tasks behind him long before Medvedev was still at work for a long time . But despite the late hour, his sense of humor was still quite awake. “Not tired Stef,” he wrote on camera in blue pen before exiting the arena.
