Daniil Medvedev admitted it was a tough physical battle for him after his quarterfinal win against Hubert Hurkacz at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne on Wednesday. The number three seed won by 7-6(4), 2-6, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 but revealed he was feeling tired after the first two sets.

The Russian made it to the semifinal of the Australian Open for the third time in the last four years.

“I’m so destroyed right now,” Medvedev told John McEnroe with a laugh in his post-match interview. “Not that I ran out of gas, but I was feeling very tough physically in the end of the second set already.

“Fourth set I just [had] no more concentration and I’m like, ‘OK, I have to try my best to do whatever I can and let’s see. If I lose, I lose, I go home and it’s OK.’ I’m happy that like this I managed to win.”

After his fourth-round win, Medvedev in an on-court interview with Jim Courier, revealed how is returning from deep behind the baseline but he surprised the Pole by returning from close to the baseline.

“In my mind I knew that against Hubert, amazing serve-and-volley… His ball, he’s probably the only one where the ball, even if I stay really far back, it continues to go up, it never really goes down. So it doesn’t really work to stay there.

“So talking to Jim, talking in the press conference, I was like, ‘I know next match I’m going to stay close, but I’m not going to tell it you right now!’ So a little surprise here and there, and I’m happy that it kind of worked.”

Medvedev will either face Alexander Zverev or Carlos Alcaraz in the semifinal clash on Friday.