Daniil Medvedev retrieved his pickle juice, fresh from a 36-shot rally. The Australian in the other chair sucked down a gel. John Millman knows hard work. He is maybe his country’s biggest battler. Two days ago he played his best tennis in the last two of his five sets against Marc-Andrea Hüsler, dipping in energy and then re-emerging more alive than the first time. But anybody who has ever heard about Medvedev’s training regime can attest he is more durable than he looks. His four-hour sessions including vomit-worthy medicine-ball drills and hitting practice across the width of two courts have injected his lanky limbs with a capacity to tolerate the intolerable, and then tolerate some more.
This particular change of ends came midway through his second set against Millman. The first was a 63-minute marathon featuring seven breaks of serve and an average rally length of 10.65 shots. The average rally length on the ATP Tour over the past decade is four. Perhaps the discrepancy comes down to the fact Medvedev and Millman had never played each other before Wednesday night.
