Daniil Medvedev was not quite sure how to feel after his best Wimbledon run ended with a 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 semi-final defeat to Carlos Alcaraz on Friday. Though he fell two wins short of his second Grand Slam title, the World No. 3 advanced beyond the fourth round for the first time at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, meaning he has now reached at least the quarter-finals at all four majors.
“If one would ask me [before the tournament], ‘Are you happy with the semi-final?’ I’m like yes and no,” he said in his post-match press conference. “For sure if I’m in the semi-finals, I want to win it. I want to play against Novak on Sunday. I want to try to hold the trophy.
“But it’s my best Wimbledon so far. Normally on grass I didn’t feel amazing. These two weeks I felt great. I’m trying usually after the losses to find the positives. I was in the four best players of the tournament, together with amazing players: Jannik [Sinner], Novak [Djokovic], and Carlos.”
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Medvedev felt he put in a respectable showing against Alcaraz. Unfortunately for him, it was not enough to seriously trouble the top player in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings.
“He’s a very strong player,” Medvedev said of his opponent. “I would say in general to compare like the Big 3, they’re amazing, they win so many Grand Slams, they win so many matches. He’s kind of like them. He’s still 20. Already has one Grand Slam. Playing great. Been No. 1 for many, many weeks.
“At the same time, I managed before in my career to beat the best players in the world, including some of the Big 3… You have to play your best. You have to play your absolute best.
“I didn’t play bad, but I didn’t play my absolute best. Against someone like Carlos, Novak, Rafa, you need to be at your best. Maybe against other guys you can be playing not bad, you’re going to have your chances, during the match you’re going to find something to work with. With Carlos, you need to be at your absolute best and that’s how you can win. Unfortunately, I was not.”
While Medvedev said he had some struggles adapting to the Centre Court conditions after four previous matches on No. 1 Court, he gave full credit to Alcaraz for his emphatic victory.
“He was putting pressure,” Medvedev said. “I was doing some second serves 100 miles per hour. Pretty decent second serves. He was crushing them. I tried.”
Though Medvedev will not watch the final as he digests his defeat, he thinks Alcaraz has a real chance of ending Djokovic’s Wimbledon reign on Sunday.
“It’s a very great match. I’m not going to lie, it’s a very great match to watch, but I’m not going to watch it because I’m going to be too disappointed to not be there,” he said. “I lost. I don’t deserve to be there in the final because I didn’t win today.”