Daniil Medvedev is the only one who beat Djokovic and Alcaraz, in 2023

• Tennis News
• Inside Tennis

Daniil Medvedev is experiencing a truly important moment in his career. The Russian defeated the reigning US Open champion Carlos Alcaraz, conquering his third final in the American Grand Slam. The former number one has been recognized for years as one of the strongest and most complete tennis players on this surface and will now have a concrete chance to repeat the success of two years ago, in the remake final against Novak Djokovic.

The Russian played an absolutely extraordinary first part of the season, winning in Rotterdam, Doha, Dubai, Miami and Rome. From June onwards the 27-year-old dropped a bit, losing ground to the Serbian and the Spaniard. However, Medvedev remains the only one to have beaten them both in 2023.

Djokovic in Dubai. Alcaraz in New York. Furthermore, both number 1 at the time of these victories. Daniil unleashed one of the most important performances of his career against the Murciano tennis player, stemming his impact force.

Medvedev's words at the press conference

Medvedev explained: "I'm a great defender. I run well, there were even moments when I thought: Man, I should have started running faster, because sometimes you tend to look at what your opponent is doing.

But against Carlitos he is dangerous because he plays very fast, he hits shots so fast that you don't have time to watch. Every time I looked and it was slow, I thought: Next time I have to do better, and I did it." Then on Djokovic: "It's fantastic to have won this match but if I lost the tournament on Sunday, I would be very disappointed.

The only way I can take advantage of the 2021 final is to think that Novak, when he loses, is no longer the same, he is different , has a different mentality. That's why he has 23 Grand Slams, so many Masters 1000s, weeks at No.

1. So I have to use him knowing he's going to be 10x better than he was that day. And I have to be, if I want to beat him, 10 times better than I was that day. It's still better than the last time he played."