NEW YORK, Sept 9 — Daniil Medvedev shocked defending champion Carlos Alcaraz 7-6(3) 6-1 3-6 6-3 on Friday to move into the US Open final, denying tennis fans the blockbuster finish to the Grand Slam season they had been hoping to see.

A final involving former-US Open champions Medvedev and three-time winner Novak Djokovic on Sunday is one of obvious high quality but not the next chapter in tennis’s hottest rivalry of Djokovic and Alcaraz that has had the sport buzzing.

Djokovic did his part breezing past big-hitting American Ben Shelton 6-3 6-2 7-6(4), but Alcaraz could not crack the third-seeded Russian, who would bend but not break.

There will be some juicy subplots to Sunday’s final with Djokovic hunting a fourth US Open that would see him equal Margaret Court’s record haul of 24 Grand Slams and, along with it, a good measure of revenge on Medvedev.

The last time Djokovic and Medvedev clashed at the US Open was the 2021 final, where the Russian claimed his only major so far and denied the Serb a rare calendar Grand Slam. — Reuters