Daniil Medvedev 'ready' to make Australian Open title breakthrough

Twotime runnerup Daniil Medvedev said Monday he is good enough to take the next step and go all the way to the title at the Australian Open this year The Russian overcame stubborn resistance from Portugals Nuno Borges to book a place in the quarterfinals 63 76 74 57 61 and will meet Polish ninth seed Hubert Hurkacz next World number three Medvedev whose only Grand Slam title was at the 2021 US Open was a Melbourne finalist in 2021 and 2022 losing to Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal But he said he had improved since then and was capable of making it count this time I know what Im worth I know how good I can play he said I proved it at the US Open especially for myself playing some tough opponents in my opinion like gamestylewise I managed to beat them Im ready Hopefully I can show it on the tennis court We can talk forever who is ready who is favourite You need to win The 27yearold must first get past Hurkacz who has one of the biggest and best serves in the game using it to great effect against French wildcard Arthur Cazaux They have met five times before with the Polish ninth seed winning the last two both in 2022 He serves well Its tough to return his serve By number of aces he was number one maybe actually the best serve last year Medvedev said Thats going to be the key I need to stay strong on my serve dont give him the break either try to break him or go to the tiebreak and try to win the tiebreak Going to prepare well mentally tomorrowAlso ReadlsquoNot all heroes wear capesrsquoBefore this years Australian Open Borges had never won backtoback Tourlevel matches outside of Davis Cup and his lack of pedigree was ultimately exposed The key difference was the unforced error count with Borges making 66 to Medvedevs 34 But it was nevertheless a sterling effort by the 26yearold who was the first Portuguese player ever through to the second week in Melbourne Medvedevs baseline power was a standout factor in the first set with the only break coming in the sixth game as the Russian dominated long rallies Borges bravely held his own until 33 in the second set before crumbling under the Russians unrelenting groundstrokes conceding the break But the world number three then lost focus and his fourth double fault of the match at 3040 in the next game put the set back on level terms It went to a tiebreak with Medvedev surviving another double fault to prevail The Russian manoeuvred to the cusp of victory at 52 in the third set but Borges refused to go quietly winning the next five games to keep the match alive It was a wakeup call for Medvedev who raced through the fourth set in 24 minutes as Borges flaggedWith agency inputs