NEW YORK: Grigor Dimitrov rallied for a shocking upset of 20-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer at the US Open on Tuesday, the lowest-ranked New York semi-finalist in 28 years advancing to face Daniil Medvedev.
The 78th-ranked Bulgarian, who had dropped all seven prior meetings with Federer, made a dramatic fightback to defeat the Swiss third seed 3-6, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 at Arthur Ashe Stadium and will face Russian fifth seed Medvedev in Friday’s semis.
“I’m just happy,” Dimitrov said. “The only thing I was telling myself was to stay in the match. Physically I was feeling pretty good. I was hitting some shots against him that were hard to hit.”
Dimitrov reached his first US Open semi-final to match the deepest Slam runs of his career from Wimbledon in 2014 and the 2017 Australian Open. Not since 174th-ranked Jimmy Connors reached the 1991 quarter-finals had New York seen so lowly a figure on the ATP ratings list reach the last four.
Dimitrov is also the lowest-ranked Slam semi-finalist since 94th-rated Rainer Schuettler of Germany at Wimbledon in 2008. Federer, a five-time US Open champion who has not won at Flushing Meadows since 2008, breezed through the first set in 29 minutes and appeared to have withstood the danger until Dimitrov opened the fourth set with a break.
Federer was denied on five break points in the 10th game of the fourth set and Dimitrov held to force a fifth set.
Federer went off the court for a private medical timeout to treat his upper back near his neck. “This is Grigor’s moment, not my body’s moment,” Federer said. Dimitrov broke Federer twice on the way to a 4-0 lead in the final set and the 38-year-old Swiss star had no effective reply, foiled by 61 unforced errors in falling after three hours and 12 minutes.
“It’s OK. It’s how it goes,” Federer said. “I tried my best. I fought with what I had and that’s it.” Federer would have become the oldest Slam semi-finalist since Jimmy Connors at age 39 at the 1991 US Open.
Medvedev defeated three-time Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka 7-6 (8/6), 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 to reach his first major semi-final, shaking off a sore left quadriceps that made him contemplate quitting the match. Now he gets two days of rest.
“That’s huge advantage regarding what happened to my leg,” Medvedev said. “It should be OK.” Wawrinka, foiled in a bid for his second US Open title in four seasons, said he did not think Medvedev would be holding the trophy on Sunday.
“He can, but I don’t think he will. I think it’s going to be really difficult,” Wawrinka said. “Because he looks to start to be tired, and he has to beat some more tougher player in the semi-final and then in the final.”Meanwhile, Elina Svitolina became the first Ukrainian to reach the US Open semi-finals while six-time champion Serena Williams goes in search of win number 100 at Flushing Meadows against China’s Wang Qiang.Fifth seed Svitolina, 24, advanced to the last four at a second consecutive Grand Slam after matching her run to the Wimbledon semi-finals in July.
She will either play 23-time Grand Slam champion Williams or 18th seed Wang for a place in Saturday’s showpiece final in New York. “It feels amazing. It was a very, very tough match. We were both striking the ball well. It was quite even. In the end I had to close it out on my serve,” Svitolina said. “I’m very, very happy the way I handled the pressure.”
Svitolina watched a pair of match points pass her by at 5-3 on her opponent’s serve as Konta gamely fought to stay alive, but the Ukrainian closed out victory in the following game. Svitolina will attempt to emulate Andrei Medvedev as just the second Ukrainian to play in a Grand Slam final. Medvedev lost the men’s 1999 Roland Garros final in five sets to Andre Agassi.
Eighth seed Williams captured her last Slam title at the 2017 Australian Open while pregnant and hasn’t won the US Open since 2014.
The 37-year-old American rolled her right ankle in a last-16 win over Petra Martic but said she felt “fine” ahead of a first-time meeting with Wang.
Williams holds a 99-12 career record at the US Open and is two wins shy of matching the all-time mark that belongs to Chris Evert. Wang, 27, is trying to join Li Na, the former French and Australian Open champion, and Zheng Jie and Peng Shuai as just the fourth Chinese player to reach the last four of a major.
