Medvedev on Alcaraz: ‘Probably the toughest opponent I have faced’
pa href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/daniil-medvedev/mm58/overview'Daniil Medvedev/a is one of the best problem solvers on the ATP Tour, freely moving from plan A to plan B and frustrating opponents with his extensive repertoire. But the 28-year-old met an all-too-familiar roadblock Friday at a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/wimbledon/540/overview'Wimbledon/a, where he fell in the semi-finals for the second straight year to a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/carlos-alcaraz/a0e2/overview'Carlos Alcaraz/a./p
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ldquo;Probably in my career he's the toughest opponent I have faced,rdquo; Medvedev said of Alcaraz in his post-match press conference. ldquo;But I have time, I have time to try to do better. The match against Carlos was much closer than last year. Last year, I went out from the match and I was like, lsquo;Wow, that was a semi-final, one hour, 30 [minutes] or something like this.rsquo; Very fast. He crushed me off the court," he added about last year's 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 defeat. "Today, I felt like that was not the case.rdquo;/p
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Medvedev is drawing on positives from his two weeks at the All England Club, having earned a five-set quarter-final victory against World No. 1 a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/jannik-sinner/s0ag/overview'Jannik Sinner/a. Even in Medvedevrsquo;s loss to Alcaraz, who won 6-7(1), 6-3, 6-4, 6-4, the fifth seed showed flashes of his best level, pushing the Spaniard for two hours, 55 minutes./p[ATP APP]
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ldquo;I felt like I was much closer [than last year], was just a little bit worse in some important points, important moments. I feel like the plan itself, I was playing well and just it was not enough anyway," said Medvedev, fourth in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin. "Tough, tough match. Carlos plays well. I feel like the plan I came up with was working not so bad."/p
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Alcaraz leads Medvedev 5-2 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series, with three of those meetings coming at SW19. Medvedev won the pairrsquo;s first encounter at a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/wimbledon/540/overview'Wimbledon/a in 2021, but has since lost five of their past six matches. His second win against the three-time major champion came at last yearrsquo;s a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/us-open/560/overview'US Open/a in the semi-final round./p
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ldquo;Hersquo;s tough to play,rdquo; Medvedev said. ldquo;I felt like I was serving good, definitely not worse than the other matches. Only five aces. He seemed to touch almost every ball on the court, like running well. I made some good points. I could have finished some maybe at the net, but didn't manage to do it./p
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ldquo;In my opinion, he played much better than all the opponents I faced here before, and hence I lost. Not much more to add.rdquo;/pp
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The 2020 a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/nitto-atp-finals/605/overview'Nitto ATP Finals/a champion, who has claimed 20 tour-level titles, was asked to draw comparisons between the 21-year-old Alcaraz and the lsquo;Big Threersquo;; a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/novak-djokovic/d643/overview'Novak Djokovic/a, a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/rafael-nadal/n409/overview'Rafael Nadal/a and a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/roger-federer/f324/overview'Roger Federer/a./p
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ldquo;Carlos, I don't think he has anything from them. It's different game style,rdquo; Medvedev said. ldquo;I think where Carlos is different from many players, we all have a little bit of our preferences, someone prefers defence, someone prefers to counterattack, someone prefers to be super aggressive. He can do all of it.rdquo;/p
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Holding a 33-10 season record and still searching for his first title since Rome last year, Medvedev turns his attention to the Paris Olympics, which begin 27 July./p
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ldquo;Here I'm going straightaway to play Olympics on clay. I don't know how it's going to be. It's not going to be easy. I'm not going to have much preparation because I managed to do a good tournament here,rdquo; said Medvedev./p
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ldquo;I have no idea how I'm going to handle it, if I'm going to be in peace, angry, or something like this. But, look, it's one tournament. I have my goals in my mind, doubles, mixed doubles is one of them, one of the big goals because, honestly speaking, I don't think I'm the favorite to win in singles or even to get a medal, but I'm going to try. I'm going to go there, enjoy it, and try my best on clay and then on hard courts after.rdquo;/pp[NEWSLETTER FORM]/p