Daniil Medvedev has yet to lose a set in this U.S. Open, cruising through four matches with relative ease.
His opponent in the quarterfinals already has played seven matches at Flushing Meadows, and who the heck is he anyway?
Medvedev, the Open’s No. 2 seed, didn’t have much trouble with Dan Evans on Sunday, flicking him away, 6-3, 6-4, 6-3, at Arthur Ashe Stadium in an economical 1 hour, 43 minutes.
Over at Armstrong Stadium, Botic van de Zandschulp (yes that Botic van de Zandschulp) needed five sets to eliminate fan favorite and No. 11 seed Diego Schwartzman, 6-3, 6-4, 5-7, 5-7, 6-1, in 4:20, more than double the time.
“I felt Daniil was very good,” Evans said. “I think he showed why he has his ranking, why he’s challenging in these tournaments to win them. Yeah, difficult match.”
When Medvedev is on his game, he serves quickly and precisely. Many of his four-point service games barely lasted a minute. He had 13 aces with only two double faults. Evans returned only 34 of Medvedev’s 76 serves. Evans’ only advantage was his serve-and-volley in which he won 19 points. Medvedev didn’t do it once.
“I think [his] serve for me is the thing, I think is a bit underrated,” Evans said. “He goes through his service games very quickly . . . In sport, there’s levels, and he was a different level to me today.”
Medvedev, who has played the minimum of 12 sets here, was happy for a fast win. “I’m really happy that I beat such a tough opponent with that score and with that much energy left, I would say.”
He is slightly aware of van de Zandschulp, who played the maximum nine sets in the qualifiers and has played 18 in the main draw.
“Botic, I saw the match today at 5-4 for him in the third, because then I went to play,” Medvedev said. “I did think he’s gonna finish it in three, and when I went out and they told me he just finished but he still won, wow, impressive . . . I know he can play good. I saw this today, especially he chose very good tactic against Diego. He was all over the place.”
Van de Zandschulp is 2021’s ultimate qualifier. The 25-year-old, ranked 117 in the world, got through qualifying at the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon and now at the U.S. Open. He won his first-round matches at Roland Garros and Wimbledon. He began the year at the only other ATP Tour level tournament he has gotten into in Melbourne and reached the quarterfinals, beating American Reilly Opelka along the way.
Remarkably, van de Zandschulp had played from behind in every match here, including the qualifiers, until Sunday when he won the first two sets against Schwartzman.
Having never played him or watched him, Schwartzman turned to video to see if he could get a bead on the rangy Dutchman, who plays with classic grace and is light on his feet, a wee bit like Roger Federer.
“I saw a few videos before the match. But he played a little bit different,” Schwartzman said. “I was thinking he was trying to play aggressive, trying to do winners. It was a little bit different. He was doing the slices, passing shots. The mix that he did, it was working.”
Even van de Zandschulp is a bit surprised to be where he is.
“Well, I started in qualifiers here. Didn’t really expect before the tournament that I would make the quarters here,” said van de Zandschulp. “Of course I won like two rounds, one in Wimbledon, one in Roland Garros. Yeah, beat one good player, [Hubert Hurkacz, ranked as high as No. 11 this year] I beat in Roland Garros, and so I knew that I could beat players who are ranked 20 or 10 in the world. But I didn’t do it like this often, this consistently.”
He spent much of the season playing Challenger events, several steps down from Grand Slams.
“I have to say when I’m playing against guys who are better than me or better in general, my level is also increasing,” van de Zandschulp said. “So I prefer to play against better guys. Yeah, I started playing better myself.”
