Medvedev just keeps on winning, defeats Davidovich Fokina in Indian Wells quarter-finals

Can anyone or anything stop Daniil Medvedev right now?

The answer continues to be “no.”

Medvedev extended his winning streak to 18 matches as he bids for a fourth consecutive title, defeating Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 6-3, 7-5 in the quarter-finals of the BNP Paribas Open on Wednesday afternoon. The No. 5 seed survived a tight second set to advance after one hour and 46 minutes of play.

More adversity for Medvedev

Although Medvedev continues to win matches left and right, this Masters 1000 tournament has been a bit of a roller-coaster ride for him. The court speed is too slow for his liking, he rolled an ankle in the second set of his three-set win over Alexander Zverev on Tuesday, and he scraped his finger on the court and required medical attention on Wednesday against Davidovich Fokina.

The 23rd-seeded Spaniard appeared to be on the verge of forcing a third set when he led 0-40 with Medvedev serving at 3-4. All three break points were erased, however, and the recent Rotterdam, Doha, and Dubai champion held serve before maintaining momentum the rest of the way.

“I’m actually happy the ankle didn’t hurt much, because when I warmed up it was hurting pretty bad,” Medvedev said. “I knew I was going to play, I knew I was going to try. But I couldn’t move well on the warmup. I tried to warm it up as long as possible (and) took one painkiller, so that probably helped. I was actually feeling better and better during the match.

“The match was absolutely crazy. I could talk about this for 15 minutes, but just really happy to go through such a tough match with such tough conditions with the wind.”

The world No 6, will face American Frances Tiafoe, the No 14 seed, next.

Earlier in the tournament Medvedev beat American Brandon Nakashima (6-4, 6-3), Belarusian Ilya Ivashka (6-2, 3-6, 6-1) and Zverev, the No 12 seed (6-7(5), 7-6(5), 7-5).

Davidovich Fokina, ranked 28th, defeated Chinese wild card Yibing Wu (6-4, 6-1), Russian Karen Khachanov, the No 13 seed (6-3, 1-6, 6-4) and Chilean qualifier Cristian Garin (6-3, 6-4) in the previous rounds.

Indian Wells Masters, other quarter-final results:

• Carlos Alcaraz vs. Felix Auger-Aliassime (Thursday)
• Taylor Fritz vs. Jannik Sinner (Thursday)
• Frances Tiafoe beat Cameron Norrie (10): 6-4, 6-4

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