With the pink grime of Roland-Garros underneath his ft, Félix Auger-Aliassime in the end slew the dragon that’s Daniil Medvedev to achieve the Olympic quarter-finals in Paris.
After shedding all seven earlier conferences to the previous US Open champion, the Canadian delivered a scientific efficiency of their first conflict on clay, giving Medvedev nothing to work with in a 6-3, 7-6(5) victory on the Summer time Olympics.
It was at all times going to take a near-perfect efficiency from Auger-Aliassime to lastly get that elusive win over Medvedev however that’s what the Canadian delivered on Wednesday. He gained 88 per cent of his first serve factors, shedding simply 5 general. Not solely did Auger-Aliassime not face a single break level, he was by no means even pushed to deuce on his personal serve.
Even as soon as the rallies bought going, the Canadian used his looping groundstrokes successfully to regulate the rallies, placing 26 winners, almost 3 times his opponent’s 10, whereas solely committing yet one more unforced error, 18 to 17.
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By way of the early levels of the primary set, there was little between the 2 males as they each held serve with relative ease. Auger-Aliassime had one have a look at a break level within the fourth recreation when Medvedev missed a forehand however couldn’t convert.
Rain got here at a crucial second late within the set simply when the door was opening for the Canadian as he led love-30 on his opponent’s serve at 4-3. He didn’t let the hour-long delay cease him nonetheless.
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Popping out of the pause, Auger-Aliassime gained the primary level to go up love-40 after which fired a backhand down the road that was an excessive amount of for Medvedev to deal with, seizing a 5-3 lead. He promptly served out his first set towards his rival since their epic 2022 Australian Open quarter-final.
Early within the second set, the Canadian had probabilities to take full management of the match with break factors in every of Medvedev’s first two service video games however was unable to transform. However with the way in which he was cruising on serve, he was in a position to preserve the stress on his opponent.
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After typically being the dominant participant all match, Auger-Aliassime appeared to be in bother when he double-faulted to go down a minibreak at 3-4 within the tiebreak. However he made up for it with an enormous forehand down the road on the following level after which Medvedev returned the favour with a double fault of his personal to set the Canadian as much as serve out the match.
A giant serve arrange a pair of match factors and whereas he narrowly missed the primary with a drop half-volley, Medvedev mistimed a serve-and-volley, dumping the ball into the web at hand Auger-Aliassime his first win within the rivalry.
Auger-Aliassime is now one win away from enjoying for a medal but it surely won’t be simple. His reward for lastly defeating Medvedev might be both two-time Roland-Garros runner-up Casper Ruud, who the Canadian did defeat earlier this yr on clay in Madrid though the Norwegian leads their head-to-head 3-2, or the current Umag champion Francisco Cerundolo (Auger-Aliassime leads the head-to-head 2-1).
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Canada’s medal hopes in Paris now lie totally on the shoulders of Auger-Aliassime. He’s the one singles participant left from the Nice White North.
He’s assured to play for at the least one medal as Auger-Aliassime and Gabriela Dabrowski defeated their neighbours Taylor Fritz and Coco Gauff of the US within the combined doubles quarter-finals 10-8 within the match tiebreak on Friday.
By reaching the semifinals, the Canadian pair are assured to play for a medal irrespective of the results of their semifinal on Thursday towards the Czech crew of Tomas Mahac and Katerina Siniakova. A win would assure them no worse than silver and a shot at gold on Friday.
Dabrowski and Leylah Annie Fernandez have been upset within the second spherical of the ladies’s doubles on Wednesday morning by Mirra Andreeva, Medvedev’s combined doubles companion, and Diana Shnaider.
