After more than two hours of battle, Daniil Medvedev he took the fratricidal duel against Karen Khachanov (7-6, 3-6, 6-3) to access a new Masters 1000 final, the second of this season. She had never signed a great result in the Miami Open, but the Russian is so talented and arrives with such good dynamics that it was only a matter of time. Now all that remains is to wait and see if Carlos Alcaraz or Jannik Sinner will be his opponent on Sunday.
Just the day that Wimbledon has announced that it will allow Russians and Belarusians to participate in its next edition, I can’t think of a better celebration than this match. A Medvedev-Khachanov in the semifinals of a Masters 1000, of course, securing a tennis player from Moscow in the title match on Sunday. Two classics on the circuit, two seeded teams, two good friends facing each other for a ticket to the final party, although we knew that all this did not guarantee, far from it, the most attractive match for the spectator. Indeed, it was not, but it did keep the excitement of seeing which of the two arrived in better shape.
It was not easy to make it 7-6 on the scoreboard, it was not easy to unlock a first round where the service of both contestants shone clearly, although it must be recognized that Daniil had a small hole with the second serve. For example, he had it in hand with 5-3 and his serve, but from the other side they responded with height. In the end, there was no other option than to go to the tiebreak to define which of the two hits the first hit on the table, which ended up being Medvedev. The score did not lie, since it had only been higher by a minimum fee, so it did not mean that the duel had already been settled.
The 62 minutes that the first set lasted caused the world No. 5 so much mental wear and tear that the next thing he started was broken in the second. A 3-0 start for Khachanov confirmed our thought that this film still had a lot of plot ahead, although knowing the protagonists did not mean such a big advantage to assume that there would be a third set. Of course, if Medvedev sides with him by taking a step back and trying to go unnoticed, that is the last exit to turn a score around. Honestly, without sounding cruel, the more time passed after the game, the more I thought about how spectacular Sinner-Alcaraz would be this morning. There was no colour.
THE WINNING RUSSIAN
But beyond the brilliance of the match, the box doesn’t care if you bring out your best version or a lesser one, the only thing that matters in a third set is to see who grits their teeth the most and wins the prize. In order to have that reaction, you have to pull from your own job, from many experiences in these scenarios, so you already know what happened next. Medvedev said that the uncertainty was enough, that it was time to put another gear and escape to the finish line, placing a 4-1 impossible to turn. Karen tried, of course, but the train to the finish had already left a few games ago. After losing in the Indian Wells final, Medvedev has two days ahead to think about what to change so that things don’t repeat themselves at the Miami Open.
