The first 1/2-finalist of the ATP finals is clear: Medvedev defeated Zverev for the fifth time this season

Dannil Medvedev is the first semi-finalist at the ATP Finals in Turin. The 2020 champion played another very strong match in the Italian city, again not losing a set, beating Alexander Zverev 7:6(7) 6:4. Thus, the Russian topped the “Red Group” and it will not matter at all how his meeting with Carlos Alcaraz ends on Friday, while Zverev will hope that Medvedev will beat the until recently leader in the rankings, and he himself will look for success over Andrei Rublev, who until now without a win in the tournament.

The match itself lasted 1 hour and 42 minutes, and the Olympic champion can certainly regret the two missed set points in the opening set, which were largely decisive for the Russian’s 5th victory over Zverev in the course of the season and so the world number three already has an 11:7 head-to-head lead against the 2-time competition champion.

Medvedev started the match with a bang and immediately made a break, which he consolidated with ease and quickly broke ahead with a 3:1 game, losing a total of one point in his opening two services. Gradually, the world number seven found his best playing rhythm and entered more and more boldly inside the boundaries of the court. The German did not hesitate to put his forehand backhand into action and completely took the initiative from his opponent’s hands, allowing him to turn the score to 4:3 in his favor.

From there, the servers were impeccable in their performances and it was deservedly a tiebreak, where Zverev continued to be the player who took the risks and it paid off for him to take a 4-3 lead. The Russian, on the other hand, was the well-known wall from the bottom of the court and managed to level the points, then fended off two set points and finally escaped this much-contested part, placing an unsalvageable forehand.

Sasha raised his serving level significantly in the second set and gave his opponent no chances when serving, but Medvedev himself was also doing well on his serve and the games were getting shorter and shorter. Both players were winning a flurry of points from the service line, and it felt like we were not far from witnessing another tiebreak.

However, the 2020 champion showed a bit more stability in the important moments and felt the hesitation on the other side of the net in a 4:4 game, which allowed him to put as much pressure on the Tokyo gold medalist, whose nerves did not hold and so Medvedev won the right to serve for the final victory, which turned out to be a completely protocol task for him, and he congratulated himself with legitimate success.

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