World No. 1 Daniil Medvedev on Friday continued the buildup to his US Open title defense with a 7-6 (7/0), 6-1 victory over Miomir Kecmanovic in the ATP hard court touranment in Los Cabos, Mexico.
He booked a title showdown with defending champion and third seed Cameron Norrie, who beat second-seeded Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.
By reaching the final, his fourth of the year, top-seeded Medvedev is assured of taking the top ranking into his title defense at Flushing Meadows later this month.
Photo: AFP
Kecmanovic, ranked 38th in the world and seeded fourth, got off to a strong start against Medvedev, who is playing his first tournament since bowing out of the quarter-finals at Mallorca in June.
The Serbian, playing his third semi-final of the year, seized a 4-1 lead, but Medvedev found his range and relentlessly pounded his way back from the baseline.
He regained a break and swept through the tiebreaker against the frustrated Kecmanovic, who could find no answer as Medvedev powered to a 3-0 second-set lead on the way to victory.
“Very tough match,” Medvedev said in his on-court interview. “He started great and all the first set was a great level. So many tough points, so many points where I felt like I was close to getting the edge... The tie-break was great.”
Friday’s action marked the first time since Cincinnati last year that the top four seeds made it to the semi-finals of an ATP tournament.
Britain’s Norrie saved a pair of break points in the final game to grab his first win over Auger-Aliassime in five attempts, and admitted those previous defeats weighed on him.
“Felix has got me the last four times, so going into it I really wanted to win that one,” said Norrie, who withstood 17 aces from the Canadian. “Previous times I had match points, so I was thinking about that in the back of my mind.”
“It’s never easy,” added the Wimbledon semi-finalist, who sailed a forehand long on his first match point then had to fight off a break point before he was able to celebrate a return to the Los Cabos final, when Auger-Aliassime fired wide on his second match point.
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