Despite missing four and a half months of action due to a wrist injury, Carlos Alcaraz is still one of the favourites to win the US Open this year.
Alcaraz was out of action since April and he is making his competitive singles return at Flushing Meadows, but he navigation through the tournament is going remarkably smoothly so far.
The Spaniard has defeated Roman Safiullin and Jaime Faria to reach the third round, dropping just one set in the process to live up to his favourite tag.
The star will play Wu Yibing next, who beat James Duckworth in straight sets to earn the right to play the world No 3 at the Grand Slam.
Alcaraz has done nothing to dispell pundits and fans’ predictions on Alcaraz winning the US Open and now Daniil Medvedev has had his say on the matter.
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Medvedev, who comfortably defeated Sebastian Gorzny in straight sets to reach the third round, opened up about Alcaraz’s chances during his post-match press conference.
“I think someone like Carlos or Novak as well, even if he is 39 years old. He was the same at Wimbledon and the final of the Australian Open. Yeah, he lost here but things like this can happen. Whenever people like this are in the draw, they are the favourites,” said Medvedev.
“We have no idea how Carlos is going to feel, how his body is going to feel going later into the tournament, but he is definitely the top favourite for the title.
“Usually it’s a mix of things. It is, of course, how you played in Cincinnati and how you played in summer but we just saw Arthur Fils and Brandon Nakashima losing, they had a great summer.
“Then you see the matches that you play here, I am happy with my first two matches. I am looking forward to trying to improve my form. So every tournament is a new story and I want to try and write a good one.”
Both Alcaraz and Medvedev have won the US Open title and the Russian too will fancy his chances at Flushing Meadows this year.
The star lifted the title in 2021 and he has been buoyed by Jannik Sinner’s withdrawal and the early exit of Novak Djokovic.
Other seeds, such as Rafael Jodar, Fils, Andrey Rublev, Cameron Norrie, and Matteo Arnaldi, have also exited the Grand Slam in the opening rounds.
As a result, Medvedev is the sixth highest-ranked player left in the competition, behind only Alcaraz, Alexander Zverev, Felix Auger-Aliassime, Flavio Cobolli, and Alex de Minaur.
