Daniil Medvedev argued with the referee, scolded his opponent and finally fought his way through with a lot of effort: The tournament favorite solved an enormously tricky task against the serve and volley specialist Maxime Cressy with great effort and is in the quarterfinals for the sixth time Grand Slam tournament.
The 25-year-old Russian beat the in-form American 6: 2, 7: 6 (7: 4), 6: 7 (4: 7), 7: 5.
“It was an amazing match and I’m glad I’m through,” said Medvedev, who now meets Canadian shooting star Felix Auger-Aliassime. It is a repeat of the US Open semifinals, where Medvedev celebrated his first Grand Slam triumph last September.
In the intense match over 3:30 hours against Cressy, he was extremely dissatisfied at times. He complained that the opponent was taking too much time before his serves and cursed the supposed frame hits from Cressy, who advanced to the net 135 times and served big.
Medvedev is the highest-ranked professional in Melbourne in the absence of world number one Novak Djokovic and, alongside 20-time major champion Rafael Nadal, is one of the clearest contenders for the title. In last year’s final, Djokovic from Moscow lost in three sets.