Daniil Medvedev believes that key moments in a match will determine the ultimate outcome.

Medvedev shared his philosophy after he survived a scare in a Qatar Open quarter-final against Australian journeyman Christopher O’Connell.

He felt that had he missed his chance to close out the third set before a tiebreaker, the match would have got away from him.

Medvedev felt that he successfully identified a key moment and was able to raise his game.

He believes that experience has helped him to identify these moments more and more, something which gives the former world No 1 confidence.

“At 5-5 in the third, you have a last chance to break him and then serve for the match. I managed to play quite a good game,” Medvedev said.

“He missed a few shots that he didn’t miss before. It was an important moment in the match and that made me win today.”

“Everything depends on small moments,” Medvedev added.

“Sometimes confidence, sometimes pure luck.

“I have lost close matches in my life and won some.

“I am trying to use my experience to make it better. I am happy it worked today.”

The third seed was focused during the opening set, hitting consistently to outlast the Australian in baseline battles and seized the impetus early and would secure the opening set.

However, Medvedev’s performance declined in the second set as O’Connell began to close the net efficiently in an effort to force errors from his rival and force a tiebreaker.

Deep into the third set, Medvedev maintained his composure and raised his intensity, earning the key break in the 11th game before holding serve to move on.

Medvedev, who won the title in Rotterdam, arrived at the ATP 250 competition Qatar Open in excellent shape.

He had freshly returned to the Top ten of the ATP Rankings after his victory in the Netherlands.

The No 8 player in the world, who has a season record of 12-2, is enjoying his freshman run in Doha. In his first encounter, he downed Great Britain’s Liam Broady in straight sets.

Medvedev will face Félix Auger-Aliassime in the last four in a repeat of last week’s Rotterdam semi-final.

Auger-Aliassime has not won an ATP Tour match against Medvedev in five meetings.

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