{"id":126955,"date":"2021-09-10T21:37:58","date_gmt":"2021-09-10T21:37:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=126955"},"modified":"2021-09-11T01:56:58","modified_gmt":"2021-09-11T01:56:58","slug":"medvedev-powers-to-us-open-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=126955","title":{"rendered":"Medvedev powers to US Open final"},"content":{"rendered":"

Daniil Medvedev was a point from finding himself tied at a set apiece in his U.S. Open<\/a> semifinal against Felix Auger-Aliassime.<\/p>\n

The No. 2-seeded Medvedev surged out of that tight spot, beat a mistake-prone Auger-Aliassime 6-4, 7-5, 6-2 and now is headed to his third Grand Slam final.<\/p>\n

All in all, this match amounted to an opening act ahead of the headliner: No. 1 Novak Djokovic against No. 4 Alexander Zverev in the second semifinal Friday night.<\/p>\n

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Djokovic began the day 26-0 at major tournaments in 2021, with titles at the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon, and his sights on becoming the first man since Rod Laver in 1969 to complete a calendar-year Grand Slam. Laver was seated in the President's Box at Arthur Ashe Stadium for Friday's matches.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Medvedev, a 25-year-old from Russia, was the runner-up to Djokovic at Melbourne Park in February and to Rafael Nadal at Flushing Meadows in 2019. This was Medvedev's third consecutive trip to the U.S. Open semifinals.<\/p>\n

The 12th-seeded Auger-Aliassime is a 21-year-old from Canada who is coached by Nadal's uncle, Toni, and was appearing in a major semifinal for the first time.<\/p>\n

Maybe the newness of it all affected him. Surely, Medvedev's play did, too.<\/p>\n

Auger-Aliassime finished with 39 unforced errors \u2014 including 10 double-faults, three in the opening game alone \u2014 and just 17 winners.<\/p>\n

Compare that to Medvedev's numbers, built with behind-the-baseline court coverage and slick strokes: 37 winners, 25 unforced errors.<\/p>\n

Auger-Aliassime finally earned a break point more than an hour in, and a double-fault by Medvedev handed over a 4-2 lead, which quickly became 5-2. But when Auger-Aliassime served for that set at 5-3, he couldn't get over the line.<\/p>\n

Twice, he was a point from taking the set. Twice, it didn't happen, most disconcerting when he missed what should have been a routine forehand volley, slapping it into the net.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A bad backhand ultimately gave away that game, then more mistakes \u2014 among them, a double-fault \u2014 contributed to Auger-Aliassime getting broken at love to trail 6-5.<\/p>\n

Medvedev then held to cap a five-game run and claim a two-set lead. The match was 1 1\/2 hours old and, essentially, over.<\/p>\n

Medvedev and Zverev both are in search of a first Grand Slam title. Djokovic, meanwhile, was trying to win a 21st overall title from the sport's four most important tournaments, which would break the men's career mark she shares with Nadal and Roger Federer.<\/p>\n

Zverev went into Friday on a 16-match winning streak, including a victory over Djokovic in the Tokyo Olympics semifinals on July 30 along the way to the gold medal. That was a best-of-three-sets match; in New York, the format is best-of-five for men.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Open women's final is Sunday AEST, with about as unlikely a matchup as there's ever been with a Grand Slam title on the line: 18-year-old qualifier Emma Raducanu of Britain vs. 19-year-old Leylah Fernandez of Canada.<\/p>\n

Raducanu is ranked 150th, is playing in only her second major tournament and is the first player to go through qualifying and make it all the way to a title match. She hasn't dropped a set yet.<\/p>\n

Fernandez is ranked 73rd, is in her seventh Slam appearance and is coming off three-set victories over four seeded opponents in a row: No. 3 Naomi Osaka, who won the U.S. Open in 2018 and last year; No. 16 Angelique Kerber, who won it in 2016; No. 5 Elina Svitolina and No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka.<\/p>\n

It is the first Grand Slam final between two teenagers since the 1999 U.S. Open, when Serena Williams, 17, won the first of her 23 major championships by defeating Martina Hingis, 18.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0clicking here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Daniil Medvedev was a point from finding himself tied at a set apiece in his U.S. Open semifinal against Felix Auger-Aliassime. The No. 2-seeded Medvedev […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126955"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=126955"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":126957,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126955\/revisions\/126957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=126955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=126955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=126955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}