31st March, 2022
Russian Daniil Medvedev’s bid to claim world number one, was derailed Thursday in the Miami Open by defending champion Hubert Hurkacz.
Hurkacz, from Poland and seeded eighth, moved two wins away from defending his Miami title by wearing down the top-seeded Medvedev 7-6 (7), 6-3 in the quarter-finals.
A win would have moved the Russian back to world number one on Monday, two weeks after he lost the spot to Novak Djokovic.
He will remain at No. 2.
“I was returning pretty well, I was putting some pressure on his serves and that was helping my game,” Hurkacz said.
“I was able to get some free points on my serve and that was pretty big.”
Hurkacz, who is from Poland, will next meet either No. 14 Carlos Alcaraz of Spain or unseeded Miomir Kecmanovic of Serbia in the semifinals.
Kecmanovic and Alcaraz play in the last quarterfinal later Thursday.
The other semifinal pits sixth-seeded Casper Ruud of Norway against unseeded Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina.
Hurkacz has played Medvedev four times, and Medvedev has been ranked No. 2 in the world in each of those meetings — which they’ve now split.
Hurkacz improved to 14-5 this year, and his record in Miami is 12-1 all-time.
“Coming here is so much fun,” Hurkacz said.