Carlos Alcaraz Defeats Hamad Medjedovic To Advance To 4th Round At Cincinnati Open

Carlos Alcaraz didn’t break much of a sweat beating Hamad Medjedovic 6-4, 6-4 at the Cincinnati Open on Tuesday. That is more than we can say for half the other players melting like ice cream cones in the Ohio furnace. While competitors were literally getting sick on court, the Spanish sensation looked cool as a cucumber.

Alcaraz Shows Why He’s Built Different

The world No. 2 made it look almost too easy against the Serbian powerhouse, notching his 50th win of 2025 and extending his Masters 1000 winning streak to 13 matches. Alcaraz decided that dominance wasn’t just a weekend hobby anymore.

“I know he’s a really powerful player,” Alcaraz said post-match. “His shots are incredibly hard to return. He has a big serve also. I know he doesn’t like to run too much from side to side, so my plan was to make him run as much as I could.”

The Heat Was Real, But Alcaraz Was Cooler

While players were dropping like flies in the Cincinnati cauldron, Alcaraz kept his composure when it mattered most. The opening set was a grind. Six games were split evenly before the Spaniard found his breakthrough in a marathon 13-minute game. Medjedovic, to his credit, fought back in the second set, breaking Alcaraz right after getting broken himself. But here’s the thing about being one of the best tennis players on the planet: you tend to respond well to adversity.

The Serbian’s strategy of shortening points to deal with the heat backfired spectacularly. Two consecutive drop shots found the net in the seventh game, handing Alcaraz the break on a silver platter. Sometimes the simplest mistakes hurt the most, and Medjedovic learned that lesson the hard way.

Cincinnati Turns Into a Medical Drama

Tuesday’s action looked more like a scene from a medical drama than a tennis tournament. Coco Gauff got a walkover because her opponent, Dayana Yastremska, basically said “nope” to playing in what felt like the surface of the sun.

Then there was Francisco Comesana, who literally threw up on the side of the court but somehow managed to come back and beat Reilly Opelka 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-5. That is either incredible determination or complete madness. Meanwhile, Ashlyn Krueger looked like she was melting during her loss to Jasmine Paolini.

What’s Next For the Unstoppable Force?

Alcaraz will face Luca Nardi in the fourth round, after the Italian got a free pass when Jakub Mensik retired mid-match. At this point, you have to wonder if opponents are just looking for excuses to avoid facing the Spaniard in this heat. Not that we’d blame them.

The 22-year-old is chasing his eighth Masters 1000 title, having already conquered Monte Carlo and Rome during this ridiculous winning streak. He is also sitting pretty with a 1,500-point lead over Jannik Sinner in the race for year-end No. 1.

The Bigger Picture

What’s most impressive about Alcaraz isn’t just that he’s winning. It is how he is winning. While everyone else is struggling with the conditions, cramping up, or calling it quits, he is out there playing chess while others are stuck playing checkers. His tactical approach against Medjedovic was textbook. Identify your opponent’s weakness (doesn’t like to run) and exploit it relentlessly.

The scary part for his competition? This is Alcaraz using Cincinnati as preparation for the US Open. If this is him just warming up, the rest of the tour might want to start practicing their runner-up speeches now. As the tennis world heads toward Flushing Meadows later this month, one thing is crystal clear: Alcaraz isn’t just playing tennis right now. He is redefining what dominance looks like in the modern game.