Two good friends played against each other at the US Open, with Daniil Medvedev emerging victorious in three sets over Andrey Rublev.
This was a bizarre match in many ways. We saw plenty of things in this match but didn't see what we thought we did. We saw no rants from either player, well, kind of. Rublev did rant to umpire James Keothavong in the first set.
In any case, Rublev jumped out to an early lead, but couldn't hold it. The Russian looked locked in against a somewhat loose Medvedev. Did it matter? Not really, as Medvedev turned things around in typical Medvedev fashion.
He even won the opening set 6-4 as Rublev faded away without doing anything particularly wrong. He just wasn't sharp enough in the crucial rallies. Both players greatly struggled with the hot and humid conditions, with Medvedev, who joked about watching matches on pirate websites, even calling for a medical timeout, where he was checked with a stethoscope.
Despite that, Medvedev won the second set 6-3, even though he struggled for much of it. He broke his opponent in the first game to take a 1-0 lead but then lost three games in a row to fall behind 1-3. He then won five games in a row to win the set 6-3.
It was just a bizarre sequence of events which was in line with the overall theme of the match. The weirdness continued in the final set as Rublev applied heavy pressure once again. He jumped out to an early lead, lost his serve, broke Medevdev's serve once more and then lost the lead again.
The longest game of the match was the final game, which saw Rublev save multiple match points before Medvedev finally closed it out. He looked extremely relieved, bending over immediately as his struggles continued.
Not a great match from either player, but just a war of attrition. A war Medvedev won. The final score was 6-4, 6-3, 6-4.
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