Former Rome Champ Medvedev Eliminates Landaluce to Set Sinner Clash

Daniil Medvedev, the 2023 Rome champion, is once again finding his best tennis on the red clay of the Foro Italico. The former World No. 1 rallied for a 1-6, 6-4, 7-5 victory over 20-year-old Spaniard Martin Landaluce in a back-and-forth tussle that remained in the balance until the final game.

Medvedev’s victory sets up a titanic semifinal clash with World No. 1 Jannik Sinner, who arrives carrying a record-breaking streak of 32 consecutive Masters 1000 match wins.

Landaluce, a former junior No. 1 and 2022 US Open boys’ champion, was tremendous on return in the opening set, striking the ball with depth and precision as he won 10 of 18 return points and converted two breaks to race out to a 5-0 lead.

“He played unreal in the beginning,” Medvedev, who earned his 50th ATP clay-court win, said. “If he played like he did in the first set for every set of every match, [he would be] Top 5 by the end of the year… but when you are young, it’s tough to play the full match like this. Even Jannik [Sinner] had problems with this, and he managed to solve it, as we see.”

The Spaniard, playing fearless tennis and showcasing explosive power, closed out the opening set two games later, but the second set brought a rise in Medvedev’s level.

The former World No. 1 navigated a brief rain delay while breaking serve three times. Landaluce answered with two breaks of his own, but Medvedev struck decisively in the 10th game to force a decider.

“I managed to find my rhythm a bit in the second set,” Medvedev said. “And then after the rain, I don’t know why, maybe the court behavior, but he was playing a bit slower. So then I felt like I was controlling the game from this point.”

Landaluce’s lack of experience — it was his first deciding set at a Masters 1000 event on clay — did little to slow him down early in the third. He broke in the opening game and consolidated for a 3-1 lead with an exquisite drop shot after a blistering backhand exchange.

But Medvedev responded with a remarkable return winner struck from well beyond the tramlines to break back for 3-all.

The Russian continued to apply pressure down the stretch as Landaluce fought desperately to hang on. The first-time Rome quarterfinalist saved three break points for 4-4, then erased three match points — two of them in spectacular fashion — to level again at 5-5.

Landaluce even earned a break point in the next game with Medvedev serving, but the Russian saved it before breaking at love one game later to close out the victory.

Medvedev trails Sinner 9-7 in their head-to-head series, though the Italian has won each of their last four meetings.

The bottom-half semifinal will feature Italy’s Luciano Darderi against Norway’s Casper Ruud.