Daniil Medvedev reaches his second grand slam final

Daniil Medvedev (Dacoucou, Wikimedia Commons)

Daniil Medvedev of Russia is in his second ATP Grand Slam final. On Friday, Medvedev defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece, 6-4, 6-2, 7-5, and will now play world number one, and eight-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic of Serbia in Sunday’s final.

Medvedev controlled play in the semifinal win over Tsitsipas. On paper, you would think this would have been a tight affair as Medvedev was seeded fourth and Tsitsipas was seeded fifth. However, there is no doubt that Medvedev was the fresher of the two players. That was a result of the quarterfinals, where Medvedev steamrolled past fellow Russian Andrey Rublev in straight sets, while Tsitsipas went the distance in order to beat Rafael Nadal of Spain a tough five-set encounter.

Medvedev also had his serve working against Tsitsipas. He had 17 aces compared to Tsitsipas’s three. Medvedev also won 88% of his points on his first serve, while Tsitsipas only won 61%. The 27% difference was very significant.

Throughout the two and a half hours of play, there is no doubt the crowd was pro-Tsitsipas and really wanted him to make things interesting as the match went along. However, Medvedev silenced the fans by taking control of the early stages in all three sets. There was a brief sign of hope when Tsitsipas broke Medvedev to even the third set, but after some brilliant shot-making Medvedev broke Tsitsipas back to win the match.

Medvedev’s prior grand slam final was the 2019 U.S. Open Final. There he lost 7-5, 6-3, 5-7, 4-6, 6-4 to Nadal.

Djokovic has beaten Medvedev in four of seven prior meetings. However, Djokovic has lost three of their last four encounters, including a 6-3, 6-3 loss at the 2020 ATP Finals in London.  

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