French Open: Daniil Medvedev surprised by Tsitsipas' 'level'

Greek pushed past Medvedev 6-3, 7-6(3), 7-5 to book a semi-final date with Alexander Zverev of Germany.

"I was even kind of surprised (in) the first set," Roland Garros quoted Medvedev after the match.

"That's why it went so easy on his side because I didn't expect such great level from him, especially I felt like I played good guys like [Alexander] Bublik, [Cristian] Garin, Tommy Paul actually, that played good from baseline, and I felt that I was on top of them in the rallies so I felt I could continue doing this today like on the hard courts. It was not the case so I had to change."

Medvedev did change and clearly threw everything he had in his arsenal at the Number 8 seed during the last moments of the match, even an underarm serve on match point. But if it weren't for clutch shot-making by Tsitsipas late in the second and third sets, the match might have turned out differently.

"A very millenial shot -- so true," Tsitsipas said of Medvedev's underarm serve. "Well, once he took kind of like a short break, I saw he kind of stopped. I felt like there was something coming up, so at that point I think I got prepared for it."

Medvedev defended his decision. "I was thinking about it during the whole match, like that maybe in the important point I could do it because my opinion that he was quite far back in the court, so that can always work," he said. "But I didn't see the opportunity before, and this one I felt that he was kind of on top of me, so I thought it's going to be a good choice to bring him surprise."

Daniil who entered the tournament with an 0-4 lifetime record at Roland-Garros, finally flourished on the Parisian clay this year, winning four straight matches to reach the quarter-finals.

"Every time I don't win a tournament, it's kind of a disappointment," he said. "But before coming here, as I said, first time I came here it was Thursday or something, I was feeling good straight away, so I was like, 'I can do good results.' But before coming here, if anybody would tell me I would be in quarters losing to Tsitsipas in a tough match, I would sign. I will not lie, I would sign, especially being 0-4 in the first rounds before. So I think great tournament, great fight today. Was fighting until the last point."(ANI)