ANALYSIS: Sinner Beats Medvedev + SF Preview | US Open 2024

and these four guys have made the semifinals of the US Open one of them has won a major already this year three of them are in the best runs of their careers so far essentially and it's going to be interesting to see how yanic Center can fend versus the three I would say underdogs at this stage but the American hope is alive the US Open as it's called is fully Alive as Jessica C Pula takes out Austrian and we're going to talk about how weird the center versus meev match was here in the quarterfinals as it was one of the stranger ones I've seen as an analyst between two top guys so let's get into it let's break down the semi-final matchups how we got here looking forward and that's what we do on the slice so thanks for being here the slice is presented by betway let's get rolling okay welcome back to the slice everyone if you're new here thanks for subscribing and thanks to those of you who have gone now and checked out the audio podcast subscribed on Apple podcast and Spotify JP not here right now but he says thank you um big things to get through here in tennis we're going to get through the men's and women's semi-final matchups uh we're going to talk about the center Mev match that we just watched that was one of the weirder ones um but before that shout out to betway the slice is presented by betway so you know that if you're going to bet responsibly you need to use betway if you're not going to bet responsibly don't do it at all uh betway has been a great platform to use for me I love it how it's easy to sign into the the odds come up really nicely the app works great so yeah huge shout out to them for helping put on the show and huge shout out to you for being here I'm tired the US Open is in I really shouldn't be I don't really know why I am I think it's like the late night recordings kind of late night but on E like on the west coast of North America where I live it's like the easiest time ever for any tennis fan I would say so I really shouldn't be complaining and I'm not so there's that but who should be complaining is denell medv because he lost to yanuk CER today in a match that he's gonna he would love a do over of I think uh he goes in there and outside of one set and a little bit throws an absolute stinker and to be fair Yanik CER also didn't play his top level of tennis either and it was a really interesting match to watch two of the best players really a lot of people have called this quarterfinal like the deao final which I think is disrespectful but the way that they played maybe shows that it wasn't because they did not live up to the Epic that we thought we might have I put in the title or thumbnail of a video a few time uh shows ago potential epic incoming it was not an epic it was a weird one like I said it was up and down and it was yeah 62 for Center 61 for Mev 61 for Center 64 now the four set that had some potential there to get really good um but it didn't happen um well you know the level got better I would say both of them got to a closer higher level but Center more clutch from the ground uh didn't Mez ground game kind of broke down all night long both of them had weird serving nights we'll look at the stats but I think from the ground Center was more solid when Mev was play was you know winning the second set and playing better it's when he was kind of it seemed to me to be soft balling me or Center up the middle of the Court taking away angles and kind of taking away ability for Center to attack when me tried to be too aggressive he seemed to miss for me when he to redirect the ball down the line with his back end he was going long a lot um both sides and yeah these balls fly we thought me you know me have had a better hold on it as the tournament went along but it's a different ball coming at you from Center no one hits it as big as he does off the ground and yeah he Center handled the conditions better and played a better match from the ground so let's go set by set through through this one after we look at the total so the match summary yeah five Aces only for meev four for Center uh 56 first Ser first percent first serves in for Mev super low 53 first serve percentage in for Center but he wins he wins 76% of his first seres compared to 67 for meev and 61% on his second serve which is you know the return for meev really wasn't there throughout the match if you look at set one all these stats are kind of accentuated uh both of them under 50% first serves in CER only drops one point on his first serve and literally only drops um six points on his serve the whole set so meev wasn't locked in he wasn't playing uh great tennis and you know Center wasn't really either he just was playing that much better have had break points didn't convert on them um just a weird set six winners 15 Force erors for denell meev so really really flat start for meev then he comes out and wins the second set 6-1 so the stats completely flipped as you can see here on the right side of the screen uh Center or Center's at 58% first Ser in meev 60 they both get back to closer to normal levels um and then but then Center's not winning his first serve points meev is at 78% and 50% on a second serve wins all eight points at the net breaks twice 13 winners 11 on unforced errors so and then Center four winners 12 unforced errors so just a ton of unforced Errors from both guys uh third set back 61 Center all the stats just revers still neither of them are serving a high percentage uh it goes back to Center winning 82% of its first serves all nine points at the net breaks twice eight winners catches in the unforced errors whereas denil 14 on four SS three winners so really weird run so far and then the for sets things started to get a little bit maybe better um still a ton of unforced Errors from Mev 17 uh on eight winners only won 68% of his first serve there and that contributes to the match summary of yeah 57 unforced errors on 30 winners he usually doesn't have a lot of winners but that's a lot of unforced Errors for denell Mev and there was some points there in the fourth set that were really crucial that did did not capture there was one break point that he had um that he didn't he had the volley crosscourt it was a hard passing shot but he kind of flailed at the volley cut it too far wide uh that obviously would have changed the match he got down a break could he have gotten it back he tried but few really bad misses there in a row I believe when he had the chance to break back in the fourth set wasn't able to do it so I don't know how you kind of like summarize that match just a weird one neither guy really got going Center did for bigger parts of it um as far as getting closer to the level that he'd like to play at um and from the baseline or from the ground again Center was able to find more of his game and push denell around for more of the match although it was totally streaky because when denell kind of locked in in that second set didn't give Center anything slowed the game down played through the middle that seemed to work and then Center was just producing errors so super weird one um uh Center through Center through to the semi-finals where the other guys there are in not totally new territories uh TFO has been in the semi-finals two years ago at the US Open but Fritz has never been in the semi-finals Draper's definitely never been in the semi-finals and uh if you actually think about it for Jack Draper I believe this is the first time he's been past the fourth round yes it is so but the only other time he's made the first fourth round was at the US Open this is his best major um but what's the Delta of Sinner's experience now compared to the other guys you know you look at Center versus meev that matchup is it's interesting Lefty going into to righty and we'll talk about uh time on court because that matters to me uh I wasn't able to talk about it um in the last video because I have that chart ready but Draper has played the least amount of tenant by far out of the four semi-finalists he's at 9 hours and 14 minutes and Center's at 11 hours and 17 minutes so essentially an extra two hours on court will neither of them that's not a lot in general for the semi-finals so will that play a factor I really don't think it will um but I do think the experience difference will play a factor Center's been here before he's made it through the semi-finals he's made it through the finals he's won a major this year so does he have way more belief than drack Draper maybe does he have more pressure on him definitely so it's interesting you got these different Dynamics you've got Draper playing in the fresh Garb I was hating on this outfit on Twitter um but I think with the way he's playing and the swag he has as a person I'm coming around to it I'm coming around to it I think but that's an interesting matchup so looking at looking at the semi-finals now Center Draper like I said Draper is the more fresh player he hasn't dropped a set he's been playing huge um he's got that knockout punch ability with the serve and the forehand um but I think if Center plays comfortably and he's just got too much versatility especially going switching uh directions and going into the Draper back hand I do think it's going to be pretty hard for Draper but if you watch the match today against alcr or demon AR which I wasn't able to but I was see able to see the highlights the way Jack Draper moving sliding in and out of the corners on his 4and back end is impressive and he shows how much uh Improvement he's made in his movement so he's dangerous for sure it's definitely Center is the favorite he's the favorite from here on out um but again when he won the Australian Open he wasn't the favorite favorite um he had to beat jokovic wasn't the number one seed he wasn't the number one player in the world he didn't just have a doping Scandal so he's got a lot going on still and japer I would say has almost no pressure going on to him as far as general um you know expectations from the world obviously for himself he have tons of expectations and pressure from himself and that might you know get to him you know I would call that the moment getting to him because it's his first semi-final so we'll see but we will see but yeah I'm definitely calling a sinner victory over dra um but not like easy definitely not easy and that's to be expected it's a semi-finals okay Fritz tifo Fritz tifo the American boys going at it in the semi-finals it's the USA's perfect dream so Taylor Fritz is the higher seated player he's had the better last couple of years and maybe he's got more pressure on him there on himself there but I think that pressure is is marginal it's gonna be a part party in there Americans I don't know who they're going to know to cheer for they're going to be cheering for good tennis um but how did we get there if we back it up here one to the quarterfinals Fritz takes out Z who's the number four seed who is looking very dangerous in a three and a half hour match played big uh clutch tennis in the tie breaks wins two tie breaks and a close fourth set third set um so Jack Draper is sorry Taylor Fritz is Battle tested from that Z match ver didn't play great said he didn't do anything deserve to win that but Fritz is tough to come through the that quarterfinal into the semi-final TFO gets through dimitro although it was looking sketchy there as demitro essentially injured himself his hamstring it looked like which into his back um in the third set after he had come down from four or come back from 4-1 in the second set so TFO let him in there a little bit and from the ball striking from demitro side TFO starting to get pushed around a little bit but I will say that demitro match that demitro uh TFO match for about a half a set or almost a full set there demitro was putting on some of the best ball striking I've ever seen as a tennis fan like absolutely crazy and it's a damn shame uh that he got injured it's happened so much to him in his uh that's me I thought it was Deitra um it's happened so much to him in his career it's a damn shame and this guy is is one of the absolute Legends of the game I said on the show is this his best chance to ever win a major it probably has was so far with the way he's playing um you know I I do think yeah if he didn't get injured he would have turned that match around and probably won it and then you never know but physically he just isn't able to hold up as often as he needs to um so that's tough for t or for uh demitro but TFO through two playay Fritz and yeah it's that one's tough to call but you know I'm going to lead towards the higher ranked player Taylor Fritz although he's never been to a semi-final before I think it's going to feel like he has he's been kind of deeper in tournaments more lately than than TFO he's been playing at a higher level in the last couple years like I said and it but it's going to be interesting because TFO is a much better mover than Taylor Taylor has a bit bigger game but TFO can hang with the best of them and he can mix it up better than Taylor so it's going to be really interesting to see how Francis plays that and tries to tries to draw Fritz away from just bashing on the Baseline which I suspect Francis won't want to do so I'm leaning to the higher seed I'm leaning CER and Taylor Fritz and CER is really the man to beat here he's a big favorite now number one player in the world um but I don't like how is he going to play as the number one world player in the world as the favorite with guys like Jack Draper and then either Francis TFO or Taylor Fritz coming at him as The Underdogs how is he going to handle that pressure he didn't handle the pressure great today was better than Mev but that's not saying much so that's gonna be interesting to see okay on the lady's side Jessica Pula makes it through um as we know and she takes out IGA shiant in pretty straightforward fashion which is you gotta say a bit you know even though Shante hasn't been winning outside of rolling arrows at the majors you got to say that's a little bit shocking hour and 28 minutes I watched it and all I saw from shch was just errors errors errors mentally not in the place she needs to be to win uh the US Open or beat someone who's playing as good as Jessica Pula that's for sure so tough one for Shon she's out Pula the Pula party rolls on she'll play mova who took out pad Maya 6164 Caroline mova is playing great tennis unseeded into the semi-finals that's a great story um in the eight total semi-finalists between men's and women's there's half of them are American so feels like if you don't get an American winner it's a bit of a failure but uh it's not going to be easy Pula I expect Pula to make the final but Navaro has definitely got her cut her work cut out for her versus sabalan who chopped kinen Jang 6162 in an hour and 13 minutes uh so yeah sabil Lanka to me is a favorite there and as a much bigger player it's gonna be interesting to see if Navaro can counterpunch effectively at all slow down Sanka or Sabal Lanka find some Yips but uh I expect Sabal Lanka to get through fairly standard Le versus Naro but Naro can be the villain it's kind of been weird to see on tennis Twitter how she's kind of been a villain a little bit people don't like her for some reason it seems uh Navaro and pugula coming from the super ultra billionaire Rich families Americans it's the American dream people so anyways that's that I think that's the semi-final preview we've got interesting matchups we've got cner versus Draper we've got Taylor versus TFO it's if you think about it it's yaner from Italy who doesn't host a major and the Draper from LTA uh Fritz TFO from the USA it's the federations versus the federal it's gonna be interesting it's going to be very interesting to see how these matches go down as always we'll be here to break them down for you we will be here to react to everything and thanks for subscribing thanks for checking out the audio podcast and make sure to Circle in your calendars US Open final will be there with a live stream JP Hy for the podcast will be doing it thanks for everything we will see you guys next time here on the show thanks for being