Wimbledon 2024: Medvedev on Alcaraz – ‘Probably the toughest opponent I have faced’

Daniil Medvedev admitted that Carlos Alcaraz is probably the toughest opponent he has faced in his career. The Spaniard registered a 6-7, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 win against the Russian to move to his second consecutive Wimbledon final.

Medvedev won the opening set in tiebreaker but from there on, it was Alcaraz’s show at Centre Court on Friday. The fifth seed is known for his astute planning on the court but he didn’t have many answers when Alcaraz found his A-game.

Alcaraz had also beaten Medvedev in straight sets by 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 in the semifinal of Wimbledon 2023.

“Probably in my career he’s the toughest opponent I have faced,” Medvedev said of Alcaraz in his post-match press conference. “But I have time, I have time to try to do better. The match against Carlos was much closer than last year. Last year, I went out from the match and I was like, ‘Wow, that was a semi-final, one hour, 30 [minutes] or something like this.’ Very fast. He crushed me off the court,” he added about last year’s 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 defeat. “Today, I felt like that was not the case.”

Medvedev reckons he was in a better situation as compared to last year’s semis but could not grab the crucial moments of the game.

“I felt like I was much closer [than last year], was just a little bit worse in some important points, important moments. I feel like the plan itself, I was playing well and just it was not enough anyway,” said Medvedev, fourth in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin. “Tough, tough match. Carlos plays well. I feel like the plan I came up with was working not so bad.”

Alcaraz leads Medvedev by 5-2 in the ATP Head-2-Head battle and the latter admitted that the former is tough to play.

“He’s tough to play,” Medvedev said. “I felt like I was serving good, definitely not worse than the other matches. Only five aces. He seemed to touch almost every ball on the court, like running well. I made some good points. I could have finished some maybe at the net, but didn’t manage to do it.

“In my opinion, he played much better than all the opponents I faced here before, and hence I lost. Not much more to add.”

Medvedev was asked to compare Alcaraz with the Big 3 – Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic.

“Carlos, I don’t think he has anything from them. It’s different game style,” Medvedev said. “I think where Carlos is different from many players, we all have a little bit of our preferences, someone prefers defence, someone prefers to counterattack, someone prefers to be super aggressive. He can do all of it.”