Daniil Medvedev and Stefanos Tsitsipas defeat American big hitters to reach Cincinnati Open semifinals
For the third straight season, the No. 8 U.S. men’s team reached the semifinals of an Fis and was matched up against a tough opponent. Once again, the U.S. went up against No. 8 seed Germany, this time in a matchup that was decided in a classic matchup between two top 10 players.
The opening game of the tournament, featuring the No. 8’s first major title of 2017, started in the afternoon rain — it was a great start for many and even better for the No. 8, who hit a 1-under-par 70 to top David Leyton’s 69 to go up the leaderboard.
Daniil Medvedev took control immediately and never looked back, claiming a one stroke victory.
A few thoughts
Here are my thoughts after the tournament and before we get to the postscript:
As a fan of U.S. men’s golf, you know I have a soft spot in my heart for the team, and they have been one of the best squads in the world for years.
If you look at the top five teams in this four year period, they’ve had three of the top five finishers in each of the four major championships they’ve played in.
To win this season, they were going to need to win it from one of the top three seeds — the team finished in the top 16 last year and won from the No. 3 seed.
They came up against two strong challengers in No. 3 seed and defending champion Germany.
I wasn’t sure if they could pull it off but, as the rain came down and the light faded quickly, I felt like they were going to win it, but they did not even need to try.
The biggest question mark in the semifinal matchup was whether or not the Americans could get over the German hurdle.
Sure, they had to get past them, but how difficult was that?
I have a hard time believing that U.S. could have gotten by Germany. They were playing great golf at some points and had won at the time when the sun came out, but once things started to slow down, I was not sure they could keep up the pace.
I think it was probably a more difficult task for