Daniil Medvedev may have beaten Jannik Sinner at Wimbledon, but it was the Italian who got the better of his encounter last night to reach the US Open semi-finals.
The world number one was always bound to be the favourite, but as a former winner at this event, it was impossible to rule out the 28-year-old, who has performed so consistently at the top of this sport for so long now.
A couple of bruising tennis stars with huge serves and great court coverage, many assumed that it might go the distance, yet the match was surprisingly over in relatively quick fashion; just two hours and 39 minutes.
Speaking after the match, Daniil Medvedev admitted that the conditions were not ideal for him, as something that never normally happens kept on plaguing his ability to thwart Jannik Sinner.
Daniil Medvedev admits to the odd thing that happened vs Jannik Sinner
Talking to the press, the affable Russian cut a frustrated but magnanimous figure, baffled by the nature of his loss.
Despite snagging the second set, it only ever really felt like there would be one winner, with his only two converted break points coming during that set.
Meanwhile, his opponent brought up 15 break points and finished off five of them across the three sets he won.
Reviewing what exactly went wrong for him, Medvedev admitted: ‘It’s a tough feeling when you come out and it’s rare I get tight. But in the end, I got super tight because when I was missing, I didn’t feel why I was missing, so I couldn’t correct it and then I got super tight. It was even tougher.
‘So not an easy feeling and I’m not happy with myself but that’s tennis. It’s okay, I lost, and I go home.’
Medvedev outlined what he had to do to beat Sinner before the match, but with these struggles it was always going to be an uphill battle.
Jannik Sinner’s US Open run sadly has a dark cloud hanging over it
Although the 23-year-old is battering his way through the tournament, it does feel like there is a dark cloud hanging over his campaign.
That is, despite Sinner having been cleared after a positive test for the steroid Clostebol.
Journalist Ben Rothenberg sums things up quite succinctly on X: ‘Hard not to think about how much more fun this Jannik Sinner run would have felt if we were still in the dark about his whole anti-doping saga this year.
‘The timing of that, and the way it showed a lack of transparency at the top of tennis for months, just leaves a bad taste.’
Had this been dealt with in a more professional manner, with transparency prioritised, this US Open campaign would not have been so tarnished.
It is matters outside of Sinner’s control, but the handling of this whole situation has been poor from those associated.
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