Hurkacz wears down Medvedev in Miami, denies him No. 1 rank

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — It was midway through the second set and Daniil Medvedev was standing several feet behind the baseline, hand propped on one of his knees, his sweat turning his dark blue shirt several shades darker as he tried to catch his breath.

Hubert Hurkacz, on the other side at that moment, looked like he was having a day at the beach.

He won’t be No. 1 in the world when the Miami Open is over. He made sure Medvedev won’t be, either. Hurkacz, seeded eighth, moved two wins away from defending his Miami title by wearing down the top-seeded Medvedev 7-6 (7), 6-3 on Thursday in a men’s quarterfinal.

“I was returning pretty well, I was putting some pressure on his serves and that was helping my game,” Hurkacz said. “I was able to get some free points on my serve and that was pretty big.”

Had Medvedev prevailed, he would have overtaken Novak Djokovic on Monday and returned to No. 1 in the world rankings.

Instead, the Russian will stay No. 2 in the world and find out who wins the Miami title on Sunday like everyone else. Hurkacz, who is from Poland, will next meet either No. 14 Carlos Alcaraz of Spain or unseeded Miomir Kecmanovic of Serbia in the semifinals. Kecmanovic and Alcaraz play in the last quarterfinal later Thursday.

The other semifinal pits sixth-seeded Casper Ruud of Norway against unseeded Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina.

Hurkacz has played Medvedev four times, and Medvedev has been ranked No. 2 in the world in each of those meetings — which they’ve now split. Hurkacz improved to 14-5 this year, and his record in Miami is 12-1 all-time.

“Coming here is so much fun,” Hurkacz said.

The women's semifinals were also Thursday, with unseeded Naomi Osaka facing No. 22 seed Belinda Bencic and No. 16