Felix Auger-Aliassime's breakthrough at a grand slam will have to wait a little longer.
The 21-year-old Canadian was in position to upset No. 2 seed Daniil Medvedev in the quarterfinals at the Australian Open, but the Russian rallied from two sets down to defeat Auger-Aliassime 6-7 (4), 3-6, 7-6 (2), 7-5, 6-4. The match took 4 hours, 42 minutes and ended well past midnight in Melbourne.
Medvedev will meet fourth-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas in the semifinals.
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"Felix was playing unbelievable in the first two sets," Medvedev said on court after the match. "He was serving great and he was all over the place. I didn't know what to do. I thought to myself, and people aren't going to like this, what would Novak (Djokovic) do?"
After a smattering of boos at Rod Laver Arena, Medvedev continued.
"I thought, I am going to make him work and fight until the last point. I managed to raise my level during the (third-set) tiebreak."
Auger-Aliassime, seeded ninth, had a match point in the fourth set against Medvedev at 4-5, but the defending US Open champion dialed up one of his 15 aces, then closed out the game.
"I was able to hit a serve (on match point)," Medvedev said. "If it was a second-serve, who knows what happens?"
Medvedev then broke Auger-Aliassime when the Canadian double-faulted, and held serve to force a decisive fifth set.
Medvedev broke Auger-Aliassime at 1-1 early in the fifth set to take the early lead and never gave it back.
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Medvedev has rallied from two sets down twice in his career, the first coming last year at Wimbledon against Marin Cilic.
Auger-Aliassime had a chance to win in straight sets when the third set reached a tiebreaker following 12 consecutive service holds, but Medvedev jumped up early and easily won the tiebreak 7-2.
Auger-Aliassime reached the semifinals of the US Open last fall, but lost to Medvedev in straight sets. That remains the rising star’s best performance at a major. Medvedev then went on to upset Djokovic in the final to capture the first major of his career.
Medvedev has now won 12 straight grand slam matches.
