Daniil Medvedev will take a 19-match winning streak into the Australian Open semi-finals after beating fellow Russian Andrey Rublev 7-5, 6-3, 6-2 on Rod Laver Arena.

The pair were teammates when Russia won the ATP Cup team event on the eve of the Australian Open. They were on opposite sides of the net on Wednesday afternoon, with Medvedev dominating his countryman in their quarter-final.

“It’s never easy,” he said in his on-court interview.

“But we’re all so competitive. During the match, you can see nothing matters. Just need to win … to reach the semis of a grand slam [tournament].”

The fourth-seeded Medvedev is yet to drop a set to the seventh seed Rublev in four ATP Tour-level matches.

He called for the trainer after the match to massage his upper legs as he sat in a courtside chair before his TV interview.

“I went to the bench, last game of the match,” he said.

“I started cramping. I knew he was cramping also. At the end, I locked completely.”

Medvedev is into the semi-finals of a major for the third time in his career. It will be his first appearance in the last four at the Australian Open.

He will next play either 20-time major winner Rafael Nadal or number five seed Stefanos Tsitsipas.

Medvedev is the second Russian male player in the semi-finals, joining the number 114-ranked Aslan Karatsev.

Karatsev qualified for the main draw of a major for the first time in Melbourne.

He will play eight-time champion Novak Djokovic in the first semi-final on Thursday evening.

AP



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