Russian world tennis number one Daniil Medvedev will not defend his US Open crown as the champion of the Cincinnati Open after losing to Stefanos Tsitsipas in the semi-finals of the Grand Slam warm-up on Saturday.
Medvedev battled back from losing a tense first set 7-6 (6) to take the second set 6-3.
In the third, however, Tsitsipas beat him by the same score (6-3) to dump the Moscow native out of the competition and set up a final meeting with Borna Coric.
Tsitsipas reduced the gap to 3-7 in the pair's head to head series on the ATP men's tour with his win, but admitted later that the two-hour twenty three minute encounter was no cake walk.
"I knew I had to sign up for a difficult task. Third set, it wasn’t going to be easy," Tsitsipas said reflecting on his victory.
"He made it very physical and really demanding for me. I just took advantage of some of his missed first serves. I think I had a couple [of] opportunities where it seemed to be going towards to my side," he added.
Being slightly critical of his foe, though, the outspoken Tsitsipas also felt that Medvedev perhaps overdid it.
"In the last few games of the third set I felt the ball wasn’t really flying off his racket," Tsitsipas observed.
"I felt like he was trying too hard and that’s when I knew I had pushed him there. It was something I did over many consecutive rallies and a lot of physical effort," he went on, saying that he knew this was his opportunity "to go in and strike as I had prepared for it".
Aware that he had to win just two matches in the competition to remain the ATP's number one, Medvedev managed three in Cincinnati and now goes into the defense of his US Open crown just over a week from now in good form.
Unlikely to await him at Flushing Meadows is a rematch against his final foe from last year Novak Djokovic due to the Serb's vaccine stance and US travel regulations for non-vaccinated foreigners.
Simultaneously, Medvedev will take courage from his promising success in the hard court season which has also taken in a tournament win at the Los Cabos Open in Mexico earlier this month.