Daniil Medvedev has complained about the prospect of playing an upcoming Wimbledon semi-final on Centre Court due to his impressive record on No.1 Court. Medvedev will make the first appearance of his career in the last four at SW19 after fighting past Chris Eubanks in a five-set classic, and world No 1 Carlos Alcaraz is up next.
Medvedev was forced to block out a raucous crowd on Wednesday afternoon, with underdog Eubanks a firm favourite among the Wimbledon faithful. The noise reached fever pitch when Eubanks took a two-sets-to-one lead, but the third seed still had more in the tank.
Prevailing in a closely-contested fourth-set tiebreak, Medvedev kicked on and sealed the match with a dominant fifth set to book his spot in the semi-finals at the All England Club.
However, the Russian has suggested that he feels more comfortable away from Centre Court, where his upcoming match with Alcaraz will take place, having won all four of his matches on No.1 Court so far this tournament.
On reaching the semis for the first time, Medvedev told the BBC: “That means next time I will have to play on Centre Court – and I don’t win as many five-set matches in my career there.
“Here [on Court One] I have two, one coming from two sets to love down, so this is definitely my favourite court anywhere so far. But I am just happy to be in the semi-finals.
“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. And actually in the third set I actually started to build something, not lose it 6-1 again and then that helped me in the fourth set. Starting from the tie-break, I managed to play amazing and I am really happy about it.”
Medvedev may once again have to contend with the crowd being against him when he meets Alcaraz later this week, but the 27-year-old channeled his emotions effectively against Eubanks, who sought to take full advantage of the rampant support.
With plenty of experience at playing the villain, Medvedev refused to let the noise get to him and summoned his superior Grand Slam prowess to maintain self belief and peak when the match entered its crucial moments.
To soften the blow, Eubanks will break the world’s top 40 for the first time in his career, as well as banking a cool £340,000 for making it to the last eight at the All England Club, with big wins over Stefanos Tsitsipas and Cameron Norrie along the way.
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