Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz claimed after losing to Daniil Medvedev in the US Open semi-final in four sets on Friday that he had discovered an important part of his own game.
The US Open 2023 semi-final loss to Daniil Medvedev, according to tennis legend Carlos Alcaraz, taught him a lot about his own capacity for problem-solving in high-stakes contests. The 2021 champion defeated Alcaraz in 4 sets, ending the young Spaniard’s championship defense in the round of 16.
Carlos Alcaraz, a Spaniard, was in outstanding form as he advanced to the semifinals and was poised to break the curse of unsuccessful title defenses. Surprisingly, Alcaraz was unable to respond against Medvedev’s aggression as the third-seeded Russian easily hit wins with his backhand and neutralized Alcaraz’s serves and volleys with accurate passes.
With an 88 percent first-serve success rate in the opening two sets, Daniil Medvedev dominated and put a lot of pressure on Alcaraz. Despite being the current champion, the Spanish player found it difficult to receive well and had to exert much more effort to maintain his serve throughout the entire match. Alcaraz also failed to take advantage of eight of nine break point possibilities, which had a huge negative impact on his defeat.
Medvedev’s ability to stop eight out of the nine break points he encountered demonstrated his tactical genius. He won 101 of the 174 exchanges that lasted four strokes or less, showing that he frequently had the upper hand in the match’s shortest points.
He performed exceptionally well during the game. I couldn’t come up with answers,” Alcaraz told the New York media.
“I believed that as of right now, I am a better player who can find answers when the game is not going your way. But I’ll think differently after this game. These matches are above my level of maturity. I must therefore take that to heart.
On Monday, Alcaraz will hand over the top spot to Novak Djokovic. Alcaraz has undoubtedly shown that he is the player to watch out for in the upcoming years by winning Wimbledon and making it to the semi-finals of the US Open and Roland Garros.
The Spaniard downplayed the significance of his loss at the US Open, saying he would not linger too much on the outcome and would instead concentrate on learning from the experience.
I doubt I’ll be thinking about this loss for a while. I must, of course, educate myself on it. I want to improve,” he declared.
“You know, these kinds of matches help you a lot to be better and grow up in these kinds of situations.”
On Sunday, the men’s singles final will feature 23-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic taking on Medvedev, who has advanced to the US Open final three times in the past four years.
