US Open 2024: World No 1 Jannik Sinner beats Daniil Medvedev to reach first semifinal and set up Jack Draper showdown

At least everyone got a good night’s sleep. Who would have expected that? Who would have expected the crowd at Arthur Ashe to head to the subway at midnight?

Who would have thought that this quarter-final between Jannik Sinner and Daniil Medvedev would be anything other than a gruelling battle until the early hours?

After all, this was their third meeting at a Grand Slam this year. They had taken it to the limit at Wimbledon and in Australia.

Together, those matches lasted nearly eight hours. It flew by in comparison, and ultimately Sinner is still on course for a first US Open victory.

After just two and a half hours he had defeated the number 5 6-2 1-6 6-1 6-4. And the scoreboard doesn’t lie – there were few periods of competitive tennis. It was all a bit strange.

But what is the only thing that matters to Sinner? He is in a first US Open semifinal and he has certainly taken his biggest hurdle.

Jack Draper was the lord and master of this tournament and now stands between Sinner and a place in the final against Frances Tiafoe or Taylor Fritz.

Crucially, Medvedev was the only US Open winner left in the draw. He was the only Grand Slam player – apart from Sinner – left. And the Russian has a history of knocking out the world number one here too.

Not this year, mind you. The 2021 winner was untouchable for one set, but after that? He was second best.

One of the oddities of Medvedev’s career is that he has won more matches (268) and reached more finals (32) on hard courts than anyone else since 2018. All but two of the Russian’s 20 titles have been won on this surface.

But all 20 came from different places – he never won a tournament more than once. And so Medvedev, like Sinner, wanted to break new ground in New York. But at first he fought just to make a serve.

The Russian gave Sinner an early sniff after a couple of double faults. He saved that opening game, but was broken the next round after another double fault. Sinner quickly caught the bug.

After the Italian missed his second serve, Medvedev had two chances to break back. The Russian squandered both. And then he had to pay when Sinner extended his lead and won the first set 6-2.

The world No. 1 reached the last eight with just one set down and made another threatening start here, but this was always by far his toughest test.

Before Wednesday night, Sinner had played 13 Grand Slam matches against players ranked No. 5 or higher. He had won only three. And all of those were on the way to victory at this year’s Australian Open. One of his victims in Melbourne? Medvedev. That was a clash of the titans, and the Russian was never going to fall here.

Instead, it was Sinner who had to rue the missed chances in set two. He had breakpoint chances in each of Medvedev’s first three service games. He lost them all and was soon 5-0 down. Suddenly, momentum and more of the punishing baseline exchanges swung in the Russian’s favor. Suddenly, it was a three-set shootout.

Medvedev had stepped up his game to level the match, but the tide quickly turned back on number 5. Soon it was his turn to be 5-0 down. Soon he was the one asking himself and the referee questions. Medvedev’s only salvation? Sinner wasted three chances to win 6-0.

It all made for a rather strange atmosphere inside Arthur Ashe. Two of the world’s best players were going into the fourth set of a Grand Slam quarterfinal. And yet the fans were treated to little drama.

There was still a strange, exciting exchange, with both players playing brilliant tennis. Only rarely at the same time.

They were locked in an arm-wrestling match for at least six games in the fourth set. Sinner saved a couple of break points before setting up three of his own. He needed all three.

The crowd shouted for more. They urged Medvedev to take them deeper into the night. For once, however, he failed.