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Medvedev, who took the court hours after Novak Djokovic's
quarter-final loss in Dubai meant the Russian would replace him
atop the rankings, converted six break points and fired down 12
aces, including one to seal the match.
"It's not easy, actually, to play a match when you get this
(news) during the day," Medvedev said in his on-court interview
when asked about becoming world number one.
"So then when I was receiving all the messages, well I
understood that, yeah OK, it's going to happen."
After blitzing his way through the first set, during which he
converted all three break point chances and won 80% of his first
serve points, Medvedev was forced to rally back in the second
after falling behind 3-1.
Up next for Medvedev is Australian Open champion Nadal, who made
a blistering start against world number 39 Tommy Paul but faced
a second set fightback from the American amid increasing
humidity to prevail 6-0 7-6(5).
Medvedev squandered a two-set lead against Nadal in their
previous meeting in Melbourne in January, allowing the Spaniard
to clinch a men's record 21st Grand Slam title.
He will have to be in top form to beat Nadal, who is on a
13-match winning streak in 2022 - his best start to a season in
his career at the age of 35.
"Everybody knows how difficult it is to play against Daniil,"
Nadal said. "I know I have to play at my highest level if I want
to have any chance, and that's what I'm going to try."
Medvedev said it would be special to face Nadal again.
"Kind of a chance to get my revenge," said Medvedev. "You have
to learn from the best, which is him, Roger (Federer), Novak,
Andy (Murray) ... always when they were losing a tough fight,
they were trying to get their revenge."
World number four Stefanos Tsitsipas, who was runner-up in
Acapulco last year, also reached the semi-finals with a 6-3 6-4
victory over American Marcos Giron and has not dropped a set
this week.
Tsitsipas will face British sixth seed Cameron Norrie who lost
just one game to hammer Germany's Peter Gojowczyk 6-1 6-0 in the
day's final match on the main showcourt.
Gojowczyk had received a walkover to the quarters after last
year's champion Alexander Zverev was kicked out of the event for
his assault on an umpire's chair.
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto; additional reporting by
Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru and Sudipto Ganguly in Mumbai;
Editing by Christopher Cushing and Kenneth Maxwell)
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