No-frills Medvedev happy to take back seat on drive to AO QFs

When Daniil Medvedev was down two sets to love in the cold, early morning hours Friday during his second-round match against Emil Ruusuvuori, there was a reason he dug deep to win in five sets at 3:40 a.m.

While victory at the time must have seemed like a dream - one that he should have been having at that hour of the night - the two-time Australian Open finalist knew of the rewards that lay ahead if he endured the short-term pain for long-term gain.

The pay-off has arrived, with a promise of more to come. Four days after rallying to beat the Finn in five sets, Medvedev finds himself advancing to the quarter-finals at Melbourne Park for the third time in the past four years by beating Portugal’s Nuno Borges 6-3, 7-6(4) 5-7, 6-1.

At No. 3 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, 66 places ahead of No. 69 Borges, Medvedev appeared content to allow Borges to be the play maker, confident that his defensive skills and experience would be enough to get the job done. Things were going according to plan when Medvedev led 5-2 in the third set and later had two match points on Borge's serve at 5-4. But he lost five straight games before steadying in the fourth set to close out the win.

Borges, who combined several drop shots to exploit Medvedev’s deep-court stance with regular forays to the net, dictated play with 49 winners to Medvedev’s 21 (excluding aces). But what proved more telling was the unforced error count, with Borges littering the stats sheet with 66 to Medvedev’s 34 (11 of which were double faults), according to Infosys Stats.

Making his 2024 tournament debut at the Open, Medvedev next faces ninth seed Hubert Hurkacz, who ended the impressive Australian Open debut of 21-year-old Frenchman Arthur Cazaux 7-6(6), 7-6(3), 6-4.

Too good, Meddy 👏 @AustralianOpen | #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/aHyHuKcVyT

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Medvedev paid tribute to Borges' tactics and execution, saying that he was surprised by the effectiveness of his drop shots and his general weight of shot, which he didn't pick up on his pre-match scouting.

“Dropshots in general, I'm not scared of them. But he was playing some unbelievable dropshots at first," Medvedev said. "They were short before the net, not bouncing. Like, wow, really, really surprising. Sometimes he would do them, like, almost on the half volley where you're not expecting it. I think he did maybe - not to exaggerate - 20, minimum of 15 I would think.

“Your legs hurt after running there, especially where I stay. Also his shots were so strong and heavy, which I couldn't see on TV when he played Grigor. There was an Australian Open statistic. His forehand was much heavier than Grigor's. That's strange. Grigor has a very heavy forehand. On the TV I couldn't see it. Today I felt it. He has really heavy strokes."

Medvedev has an outside chance of returning to No. 1 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings on Monday. For that to happen he would need to win the title and see current No. 1 Novak Djokovic and No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz not reach the semi-finals.

If Djokovic and Alcaraz meet in the final, the title match will determine which of those two players hold No. 1 the day after the Open concludes.

Hurkacz advanced to the Australian Open quarter-finals for the first time after surviving 18 aces from Cazaux, who played with maturity and aggression in his first appearance at Melbourne Park.

Cazaux, who served as alternate at last year's Next Gen ATP Finals in Jeddah, raced to a 3-0 lead in the first set. But the Frenchman would not see another break point in the match as Hurkacz won 91 per cent of first serves and 76 per cent of second serves.

"I served well and he served well as well," Hurkacz said. "I needed to stay aggressive and I was very happy with today's performance.

"I haven't been to this stage of a Grand Slam many times, so I'm super excited."

Hurkacz leads Medvedev 3-2 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series, winning their two most recent meetings in 2022. But Medvedev has won two of their three hard-court battles.