Alexei Popyrin will contest his first quarterfinal on home soil after backing up his upset of second seed Felix Auger-Aliassime with a grinding triumph over Marcos Giron at the Adelaide International.
While the 23-year-old Sydneysider struggled to control his aggression in the early stages against the consistent American baseliner, he slowly found his rhythm to post a 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 comeback in one hour and 53 minutes.
While his 37 unforced errors were 18 more than his 61st-ranked opponent, he tellingly struck 40 winners, more than double what Giron mustered.
“In the first set my level wasn’t great but he played well, didn’t miss any balls,” Popyrin said. “He really made it difficult for me, keeping it low, making me move around but I stuck with it.
“I’d say I served pretty well. That kind of kept me in the match and when I had my opportunities to break I tried my best to capitalise on them. I couldn’t have done it without the crowd though.”
After climbing as high as world No.59 heading into last season, Popyrin had endured a lean spell in 2022, plummeting outside the top 100 before his confidence-restoring upset of world No.6 Auger-Aliassime in the first round.
Having played his way back into contention in the night session against Giron, he pulled off a remarkable reflex forehand volley winner at 3-all in the decider while sprawled seated on the ground.
It set the crowd alight and added a spark to his step as held imposingly and broke in what ended up the penultimate game.
A thumping unreturnable serve down the T sealed a showdown with Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka, an earlier 6-4, 6-3 winner over Mackenzie McDonald.
“That’s a first for me. I honestly don’t know how I pulled that one off,” Popyrin said of his quick-reacting net play. “I’ve never hit a tennis shot on my backside before and if I did I probably would have missed in practice or anywhere else. That was a one in a million chance of going in.
“I’m going to take it one match at a time. Yeah it is a cliche, honestly, because I don’t want to get too ahead of myself. I had a really tough season last year and for me to be in my first quraterfinal in two years is a big step for me.”
Medvedev sets Khachanov quarterfinal showdown
Any notion Daniil Medvedev might have needed a handful of rounds to blow out the cobwebs in the new year already appeared to have been exaggerated at this year’s Adelaide International.
The third seed was in cruise control on Thursday as he breezed past Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic 6-0, 6-3 to reach the quarterfinals and felt he was mentally primed to return to his 2021 best, form which carried him to the pinnacle of the rankings and his first major trophy in New York.
“Last year I didn’t manage to do amazing, still not bad, that’s why I’m No.7 in the world. That’s why some players did better than me – that’s 100 per cent true – and they’re higher ranked, so that’s what I’m going to try to change,” Medvedev said.
“[It is] only motivation to try to do better. That’s the only thing when I hear my ranking, I’m like ‘Yeah I have to win bigger tournaments, I have to play better and try to get higher’.
“Mentally I’m at my top. [I’ve] done a great pre-season, I want to come back to the level, but I had some great matches last year. Just at times you miss small details and I’m trying to find them back, which is sometimes not easy.”
In his opening match of 2023 on Wednesday, Medvedev toiled for more than one hour and 21 minutes to snatch the opening-set tiebreak before his first-round opponent Lorenzo Sonego retired hurt three games later.
This was a far more polished performance from the 2021 US Open champion as he looked to regain ground lost last year.
“I played a little bit better today than yesterday but also Lorenzo played really good tennis hitting lines,” Medvedev said. “Sometimes high-level tennis is about hitting shots and a few points. Miomir didn’t manage to do the same but I’m happy with myself. I think I played better, served probably a little bit better .”
Medvedev dropped just 12 points in a whirlwind 28-minute opening set on Thursday.
The roar went up when the Serbian finally got his name on the board to level at 1-all in the second set and while the world No.29 stuck with his more fancied foe to 3-4, Medvedev landed the crucial break on consecutive backhand winners to end a seven-minute game.
Four winners in the final game carried the third seed to a quarterfinal showdown with eighth seed Karen Khachanov, a 6-4, 6-2 winner of Jack Draper.
Medvedev owns a 2-1 record against his good friend, including a win in their most recent battle in Montreal in 2019, on the eve of reaching his first Grand Slam final at Flushing Meadows.
“I think that’s a good match-up. There could be some good high-level tennis,” Medvedev said. “I feel like our games connect. At the same time, we haven’t played for a long time.
“We’re both not the same since our last time playing so I think it’s going to be a really interesting match.”
While the 26-year-old slipped to world No.7 in 2022 having been the world’s top-ranked player as recently as last February, it was not a mark that weighed heavily on him.