(Reuters) – Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut produced a stunning comeback to defeat third seed Daniil Medvedev 1-6 6-4 6-3 on Wednesday and reach the Western & Southern Open semi-finals for the first time.
Bautista Agut’s chances of victory appeared distant after the 24-year-old Russian cruised through the first set and had three break point chances early in the second.
But the 32-year-old Bautista Agut began to play freer, charging the net and serving with more confidence.
“After the first set, I was thinking a lot of bad things,” he said with a laugh. “I had to fight a lot in the second set. It was a really tough match.”
Cooler on-court temperatures helped slow the ball down, taking the sting out of Medvedev’s massive serve.
The mercurial Medvedev also struggled with his composure as the match wore on, at one point hitting the back wall of the court with his racket.
Next up for Bautista Agut is either top seed Novak Djokovic or Jan-Lennard Struff, whose quarter-final was underway on the grandstand court in Queens.
The tournament, the final tune-up before the U.S. Open, is being played at Flushing Meadows in New York instead of Cincinnati due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
(Reporting by Rory Carroll in Los Angeles, editing by Ed Osmond)
