Carlos Alcaraz said after his 6-3, 7-6(3) loss to Daniil Medvedev on Saturday that he had never seen the Russian play so aggressively.
“I think it surprised me a little bit,” he told reporters. “I knew from the beginning that he was going to play aggressive, but the way he went about it, I was surprised because he didn’t miss any, or not miss as much as I expected. He played aggressive and didn’t even miss. So it was tricky.”
Medvedev said he has no plans to draw red lines on his game. He said he just plays with confidence and tries to bring that to his opponents.
“It always has to be a balance because I tried at one point in my career to, let’s call it, being overly aggressive, and it wasn’t good,” Medvedev said. “It took too much effort, it’s not my style of play, and I was getting crazy and breaking rackets and stuff like that. I’m not talking about last year. It wasn’t exactly what I wanted to do last year, but overall.
“Right now, I’m confident, and when I’m confident, I always say I feel like an aggressive player.”
So who do we believe, or are both versions true? Medvedev has always been difficult to pin down. He’s unorthodox, he’s deceptive, he can go on the attack, but today his aggression stood out against his opponents.
The Russian said his plan was to play on the edge of the game rather than overstepping the line.
“There are no plans to be too aggressive today,” he said. “Because it’s going to cost you against Carlos who’s very defensive, so you can start making a lot of mistakes. My plan was just to play like I did the whole match before, hitting the ball well, putting pressure on him, serving well, and it worked out well.”
Indeed. Medvedev defeated Alcaraz for the third time and the eighth time in his career against the defending world No. 1. Like Sinner, he can complete his six Masters 1000 hard-court titles with a win on Sunday.
