Daniil Medvedev‘s sore right ankle wasn’t a factor Wednesday as he beat Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 6-3, 7-5 to reach the semi-finals at Indian Wells. Medvedev showed little ill effect from the twisted ankle he suffered in a three-set battle against Alexander Zverev a day earlier as he pushed his ATP match-winning streak to 18 straight.
He booked a semi-final clash with 16th-ranked American Tiafoe, who beat 2021 Indian Wells winner Cameron Norrie 6-4, 6-4. Medvedev arrived in the California desert riding high after nabbing titles at Rotterdam, Doha and Dubai in three weeks.
Long a critic of the slow hard courts of the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, he was through to the quarters for the first time after hanging on to beat Zverev despite rolling his ankle.
“I’m actually happy the ankle didn’t hurt much because when I warmed up it was hurting pretty bad,” Medvedev said. “I couldn’t move well on the warmup. I tried to warm it up as long as possible and take one painkiller so that probably helped and I was actually feeling better and better during the match,” added the former US Open champion, who has two days off before he takes on Tiafoe.
He raced through the opening set, a break of the Spaniard’s serve in the second game the only opening he needed as he lost just six points on his serve on the way to pocketing the set in 39 minutes.
It was a different story in the second set on a windy Stadium Court. Davidovich Fokina had a break chance in each of Medvedev’s first three service games, only for the Russian to come up with big serves to fend him off.
Davidovich Fokina was up 0-40 in the eighth game only for Medvedev to escape.
Along the way Medvedev had another fall on the court, this time scraping his hand and requiring the trainer to bandage his bloody thumb.
“Daniil has been winning many tournaments, many consecutive matches and you can see how solid he is on the court,” Davidovich Fokina said. It was a very unpleasant match with the wind,” he added. “We both had break chances, he took his chance and I didn’t, but the level is there.
Source: eNCA
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