Daniil Medvedev: ‘I don’t care if Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal is here, I want to win the tournament’
Daniil Medvedev batted into his third consecutive US Open semi-final with a four sets win against Dutch qualifier Botic van de Zandschulp.
Medvedev took control of the match early, racing into a 5-1 lead. Zandschulp responded with a break, before the Russian secured a 13th consecutive set. The 2019 finalist went from strength-to-strength, winning the second set 6-0 in just 23 minutes.
Zandschulp threatened to mount a memorable comeback after fighting hard to win the third set 6-4, but an impressive Medvedev regrouped and closed out the match in style to secure a 6-3, 6-0, 4-6, 7-5 victory.
Earlier in the week Frances Tiafoe suggested that the absence of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal has given added motivation to other players, however the Russian has said that wasn’t true for him.
“I don’t feel it,” the Russian said. “I think for me it’s actually more about that when they were a bit younger or even few years ago, we always saw them in semis. They were in the top four so they couldn’t meet each other before semis, and almost all the Grand Slams they were in semis. So they were taking all the spots, just because they are the greatest in the history of tennis. They are amazing tennis players.
“I’m really happy that I managed to make it to three straight semifinals US Open where, well, can we say also that I took this one spot all the time? It’s a question of level, of tennis abilities and everything,” he added.
Medvedev insists he simply focuses on playing his best tennis, and it is irrelevant who is absent from the draw.
“I don’t care if Roger or Rafa is here,” the 25-year-old said. “I want to win the tournament. It’s going to be tougher if they were here, and of course it would be tougher if they would be 30 years old. But I just want to do my best, so I don’t care if they are here or not.”
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