Daniil Medvedev bested America’s Christopher Eubanks 6-4, 1-6, 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-1 in the quarterfinals of the ongoing Wimbledon 2023 at Centre Court on Wednesday. The Russian had to battle hard for five sets but moved on to the semifinals for the first time at the grass-court major.
Medvedev took the first set but the American, who has grabbed headlines with his impressive play, bounced back in the next two sets. The fourth set was taken to the tiebreaker but Medvedev held his nerves to win the crucial points. The Russian then dominated the youngster in the fifth and final set to wrap up the match in two hours and 57 minutes.
Medvedev admitted he didn’t play his best in the second and third set but he was able to bounce back when it mattered the most.
“After [the] first set for sure, I didn’t want to go five. When I lost the third, I wanted to go five because I had no other choice,” Medvedev said, eliciting a laugh from the crowd. “But yeah, there was a moment in the match where I completely lost the game itself and he played well. I started to sink, I started to do a lot of mistakes, not serving well enough.
“Actually, in the third set, I managed to kind of step by step start to build something and not lose, let’s say 6-1 again. And then it helped me in the fourth to just be there. I had more opportunities than him unfortunately on his serve, but didn’t manage to do it. But starting from the tie-break, I managed to play amazing and [I am] really happy about it.”
Medvedev was once again brilliant with serve as he smashed a total of 28 aces as compared to Eubanks’ 17. The 27-year-old from Moscow feels the serve holds the key on grass.
“You have to serve well. You want to do a lot of aces, and that’s honestly the most important [thing],” Medvedev said of the key in the match and moving forward in the tournament. “Sometimes you can play on grass almost the best match of your life, but you can lose [in] three tie-breaks and then nobody will care that you played well.”
With this win, Medvedev improved his head-to-head record against Eubanks to 2-0. Medvedev will face top-seed Carlos Alcaraz in the semifinal on Friday.
