NEW YORK — Top-ranked Jannik Sinner used an aggressive, net-rushing style to reach the US Open semifinals for the first time by getting past 2021 champion Daniil Medvedev 6-2, 1-6, 6-1, 6-4 on Wednesday night.
Sinner, a 23-year-old from Italy who was cleared in a doping case less than a week before the US Open started after testing positive twice for traces of an anabolic steroid in March, will go up against No. 25 Jack Draper of Britain on Friday for a berth in the title match. Draper won the only match between the two, at the 2021 Queen’s Club.
After Week 1 exits by Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz, Sinner took over as the title favorite and now is the only man remaining in the field with a Grand Slam trophy. He won his first at the Australian Open in January by beating Medvedev in the final in five sets after dropping the first two.
This matchup was unusually topsy-turvy as they took turns dominating a set at a time.
First, it was Sinner who was superior. Then that role was played Medvedev, the runner-up at Flushing Meadows to Djokovic last year and to Rafael Nadal in 2019. Then Sinner regained the upper hand in the third. In the fourth, from 3-3, Sinner surged, saving a pair of break points, then breaking Medvedev to lead 5-3.
“We know each other quite well. … We knew it was going to be very physical,” said Sinner, who lost to Medvedev in five sets at Wimbledon in July. “It was strange the first two sets, because whoever made the first break then started to roll.”
The key: Sinner won the point on 28 of his 33 trips to the net, including 9 of 11 on serve-and-volley approaches.
“We tried to work really hard on this aspect of the game,” Sinner said. “Trying just to mix up the game.”
Medvedev was particularly uneven. He only had one fewer winner than Sinner but finished with 19 more unforced errors.
“Sometimes you feel like you’re doing all good and then you miss and then you have question marks, et cetera,” Medvedev said. “Maybe today I was going for a little bit more risky shots, I was missing just a bit more. As I said, one moment I kind of got lost in my misses.”
Sinner is the third Italian man to reach US Open semifinals since the Open era began in 1968, joining Corrado Barazzutti (1977) and Matteo Berrettini (2019). He also became the fourth-youngest man in the Open era to reach the semifinals at all four majors, trailing only Djokovic, Nadal and Jim Courier.
Medvedev fell to 9-2 in his career major quarterfinals, the only other loss being in the 2021 French Open to Stefanos Tsitsipas. His exit means no more former US Open champions remain in this year’s draw.
Friday’s other semifinal will be No. 12 Taylor Fritz vs. No. 20 Frances Tiafoe in the first all-American men’s matchup at this stage at a major in 19 years.
Information from ESPN Stats & Information and The Associated Press was used in this report.