Daniil Medvedev admitted he got lost in his misses after his US Open quarterfinal loss against World no.1 Jannik Sinner. The Italian registered a 6-2, 1-6, 6-1, 6-4 triumph on Wednesday in New York to advance through to the semifinal.
Medvedev could not bring his best to the court and Sinner was able to capitalize. Sinner had also beaten Medvedev in the Australia Open final earlier in the year.
“[It’s a] tough loss,” said Medvedev after Sinner’s 6-2, 1-6, 6-1, 6-4 triumph in New York. “I am definitely not happy with the way I played in general, because there were some very good moments and some not so good. So in general it’s a tough feeling when you come out, and at the end it’s rare that I get tight, but in the end I got super tight.
“When I was missing, I didn’t feel why I was missing, so I couldn’t correct it, and then I got super tight at the end, and it was even tougher. Not an easy feeling, not happy with myself, but that’s tennis, it’s okay. I lost. I go home.”
Medvedev lost the opening set by 6-2 and admitted it was horrible for him as he could not hit the right shots.
“The first set was horrible for me. I think almost even probably worse than the third one,” reflected Medvedev. “I managed to solve a lot of problems in the second set. Played better. Same in the fourth set, like I managed to start solving some problems that I had in the third set. So those are the positive things.”
The World No.5 admitted the conditions in New York were challenging as he found it difficult to manage through them.
“A theory I have is that here I saw it in practice, the week before the tournament,” said Medvedev, who is 39-14 for the year. “The balls, the courts, not easy. It was the same in Montreal, Cincinnati, it’s not super easy to control them. So sometimes you feel like you’re doing all good and then you miss and then you have question marks.
“But before I played maybe I was more like confident with myself that I will win this match even if I miss some shots. So maybe today I was going for a little bit more risky shots, I was missing just a bit more. One moment I kind of got lost in my misses. Maybe it was the same for him a little bit, because I still managed to many times put him in trouble even if it was not enough.”
Sinner will take on Jack Draper in the semifinal.