The men’s second seed Carlos Alcaraz continued to rebuild his on-court momentum and rhythm after a brief summer break by defeating the talented young Serbian Hamad Medjedovic 6-4, 6-4 to reach the fourth round of the Cincinnati Open.
The victory was a positive step for Alcaraz after a rusty performance in his opener against Damir Dzumhur on Sunday, where he won a turbulent three-set contest in his first match since losing the Wimbledon final against Jannik Sinner.
Instead of immediately focusing on the North American hard court swing, with the Canadian Open in Toronto starting two weeks after Wimbledon, Alcaraz took some time off. He took a week off from practice and holidayed in El Puerto de Santa Maria, in southern Spain, before two weeks training at home in El Palmar, Murcia.
“When I’m off, I’m off,” he said. “I don’t step in the gym at all. A lot of times if we go for a trip, sometimes my friends go to the gym. The first week that I had off I just told them: ‘I’m gonna join you for a little run.’ But then I woke up and I said: ‘Go, and I’m going to keep sleeping.’”
Medjedovic presented a genuine challenge for Alcaraz. A winner at the Next Gen ATP Finals in 2023, two years after Alcaraz’s victory there, the 22-year-old is armed with a big serve and an enormous forehand. However, his footwork, conditioning and intensity are all lacking at the highest level. With the exception of a brief blip in the second set, where he momentarily lost his serve, Alcaraz played a solid match and he continually exposed Medjedovic’s movement as he marched into the fourth round.
“I know he’s a really powerful player,” Alcaraz said after his 50th victory of the year, which gives him four consecutive seasons with 50-plus wins. That hasn’t happened on the ATP Tour since Novak Djokovic accomplished the feat in 2013-16. “His shots are incredibly hard to return. He has a big serve also. I know he doesn’t like to run too much from side to side, so my plan was to make him run as much as I could.
“It was difficult because his ball flies and it comes really fast, but I’m just glad that I did it most of the time, tried to defend in a good way. I’m just really happy to get the win.”
Alcaraz will next face Luca Nardi, a lucky loser, after the 16th seed Jakub Mensik became the latest player to suffer in the heat, retiring from his third-round match against Nardi when trailing 6-2, 2-1. In the women’s draw Coco Gauff advanced to the fourth round after a walkover against Dayana Yastremska, the 32nd seed, who withdrew on Tuesday due to illness.
