Daniil Medvedev compares facing Carlos Alcaraz to ‘almost impossible’ Rafael Nadal challenge
Daniil Medvedev has admitted he will need to be “11 out of 10” to have a chance of beating Carlos Alcaraz in the semi-finals of the 2023 US Open.
The world No 3 likened the challenge of facing the 20-year-old to the “almost impossible” task of beating Rafael Nadal on clay, but stressed “some players do.”
Medvedev will take on Alcaraz in the last four at Flushing Meadows on Friday in the pair’s third encounter this year, with Alcaraz having won both previous clashes convincingly.
The Spaniard triumphed 6-3, 6-2 in the Indian Wells final in March, before a 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 victory in the Wimbledon semi-finals in July.
Many observers have highlighted the difficulty of the match-up for Medvedev, who prefers to utilise a very deep return position. In the pair’s matches this year, Alcaraz exploited Medvedev’s court position with frequent and effective use of serve-and-volley and drop shots.
Following his straight-set quarter-final win over Andrey Rublev, the 27-year-old suggested he will have to play perfect tennis to stop the world No 1 in New York.
“It needs to be 11 out of 10 because yeah, that’s how Carlos is, very strong. Even here I think he lost one set but I watch some matches, sometimes on breakpoints he runs for the passing shots. Incredible stuff,” said the Russian in his press conference.
“But if I play Carlos, you know, two last times I lost, let’s call it, pretty easy. I’m someone who fights a lot, so I want to try to be better, and I need to be 11 out of 10 to try to beat him.”
Medvedev then assessed what makes playing the two-time major champion so challenging and compared it to playing two all-time greats.
“Yeah, I would say what makes him that difficult is just that he has every shot. He has extra power to other players. So it’s true many players probably I would go with 97%, it’s tough for them to hit the ball through me, like I’m always there, always running, always trying to get it back,” explained the 2021 US Open winner.
“He can do it just because he has this power, we see it 100 mile [an hour] forehand winner and stuff like this. Some players, even if we try, we cannot do it. So that’s one thing – he’s good from forehand, backhand, he can slice, drop shot. So he has every shot in the game.
“But again, [in] tennis, you can always beat players. People beat Novak [Djokovic]. People even beat Rafa on clay, which is almost impossible but some players do. It’s the same about Carlos.
“Every time I will be playing against him I want to try to win, so I said it one time already, I need to serve better than I did the previous matches. I need to serve on the line if I need to. I need to put my shots on the line and stuff like this. I need to be there 100% of the time and be better.”
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