Hurkacz serves up a treat for the Centre Court crowd overpowering Medvedev to reach quarter-final

By Paul Lagan on Centre Court at AELTC

Hubert Hurkacz v Daniil  Medvedev

2-6, 7-6, 3-6, 6-3

The match was dropped onto Centre Court to start day 8 of the Championships after rain suspended the match yesterday on Court 2.

Medvedev resumed the match on his serve at 3-4 in the contest with the Russian two sets to one up.

But he promptly lost his serve leaving the Pole to serve to level the match.

Much to the delight of the neutral crowd, who had an added bonus match, Hurkacz served out to 30 to take the match into a deciding set.

The set took a turn for the worse for Medvedev, when he lost his serve to make it 2-1 to Hurkacz.

Both are right-handed, with powerful serves, but it was Hurkacz who was returning serve better and taking full advantage of the Russia’s much slower second serve.

At -2-4, Medvedev faced a couple of break points. Again his first serve was failing while his second serves was around the 88mph mark.

But he managed to save those points and squeezed out the game in his favour.

But with Hurkacz holding his serve, it men the Russian needed to hold his to stay in the match.

However, by reducing the speed of his first serve to around 116 from 130, he had hoped to improve his accuracy.

This fell into the lap of Hurkacz, whose return of serve was of the highest quality and he punished the Russian forcing him into unforced errors, and ultimately the match.

He will play Rodger Federer tomorrow in the quarter-final.