Semifinal: Carlos Alcaraz vs. Daniil Medvedev
Arthur Ashe Stadium — Night Session — First Match
- Tonight's second men's singles semifinal sees the last two US Open champions square off, in 2022 winner Alcaraz and 2023 winner Medvedev. With Novak Djokovic featuring in the first semifinal, it's the first time since 2018 there are three former US Open champions in the men's singles semifinals. That year, Djokovic, Juan Martin del Potro and Rafael Nadal were the participants.
- Alcaraz is trying to become the first man to successfully defend his US Open singles title since Roger Federer won the last of five titles in a row in 2008. In the Open Era, Alcaraz is one of 16 players to win his first Grand Slam title at the US Open and only two have defended their title: John McEnroe (1979-80) and Patrick Rafter (1997-98).
- To make the final again, he'll have to beat Medvedev at a major for the second time this year; he was a three-set winner over Medvedev on his way to the Wimbledon title in July. Overall, Alcaraz leads the head-to-head against Medvedev 2-1; he also beat Medvedev in straight sets to win Indian Wells in March. (Medvedev's win came at Wimbledon two years ago.)
- The US Open might be the perfect place for Medvedev to turn that record around. He's through to the semifinals here for the fourth time in the last five year (he was beaten in the fourth round of his title defense last year by Nick Kyrgios). Hard courts might also be the perfect surface on which to do it; Medevdev, a self-decribed "hard-court specialist" is an ATP-best 37-5 on the surface this year.
- Medvedev is looking to reach his fourth career Grand Slam singles final, and get his all-time head-to-head record against world No. 1s above .500. Currently, he's 5-5; all five of those wins have come against Djokovic, which includes his victory in the 2021 US Open final.
