Stefanos Tsitsipas ousts Borna Coric to set up Daniil Medvedev semi-final showdown

Daniil Medvedev and Stefanos Tsitsipas will clash in the semi-finals of the Italian Open in Rome.

Both eased through their quarter-finals on Thursday, with third seed Medvedev, who had never won a match at the Foro Italico prior to the start of the tournament, ending the run of qualifier Yannick Hanfmann with a 6-2 6-2 victory.

“I remember sitting here before the tournament and saying how good I felt in practice,” the Russian told reporters in the Italian capital.

“It’s always tricky because then you can lose first round against a great opponent and you’re going to be like, ‘Yeah, well, why did I say this? Better shut up.’ That’s how I felt. I’m happy I managed to transfer this onto the tennis court.”

Tsitsipas had to wait until the night session to take on Borna Coric, and the Greek produced a fine display to see off the 15th seed 6-3 6-4.

“He’s been playing well and I’m playing [well] also,” Tsitsipas said on court of his upcoming match against Medvedev. “I feel good on court, regardless if it’s a night session or a day session and I really hope to bring the best out of me against him. I feel like he’s playing better than the years before.”

Despite going up against a player who had previously fought back against him, Tsitsipas remained composed. He successfully served to advance to the semifinals after earning his third service break of the match just before.

“This is clay-court tennis, things escalated quite quickly. And there was a turning point, but accompanied by my great shotmaking, at the very important moments, I was able to retrieve that and get back and hold,” Tsitsipas said. “[I played] a great service game in the very last game, serving excellently and just feeling the energy point by point.”

It will be a 12th meeting between regular rivals Tsitsipas and Medvedev. Medvedev leads 7-4 but Tsitsipas has won the last two and also beat the Russian at the French Open two years ago.