After Rafael Nadal, defending champion and seeded n°1, Casper Ruud, seeded n°2, here is now Daniil Medvedev, seeded n°7 and finalist of the last two editions, on the mat. The Russian was surprised Friday by Sebastian Korda in three sets (7-6 [7]6-3, 7-6 [4]), which at the same time achieves its best performance in Melbourne with a round of 16. The 22-year-old American, 31st in the world, has an appointment on Sunday with Hubert Hurkacz, who defeated Denis Shapovalov in five sets, to try to reach his first Grand Slam quarter-final.
A close match… during a set
Between the Russian who gave us a memorable final last year against Rafael Nadal and the young American who is playing his second Australian Open, there was a match… for a set! An undecided round, lasting almost an hour and a half, which ended in a tie-break after an infinite number of conceded services.
Korda even went so far as to lead by two breaks, before seeing his opponent come back up and conclude this round in the tie-break. The second set seemed almost too easy for the American, solid on his serve with 81% of firsts (6-3 in 39 minutes of play). At the end of a successful match, he even offered himself five match points on a winning forehand in a Rod Laver Arena which cheered him on. The first three were saved, the fourth was the good one. The clenched fists, the cry of joy, the tears of his girlfriend at the edge of the court, all the emotions were united for Korda, whose father, Petr, had imposed himself here in 1998.