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With a terrible surprise, and after preventing Rafael Nadal from serving for the match in the second set, Daniel Medvedev qualified for his first ATP Finals final where he will face Dominic Tim.
The amazing Daniel Medvedev, qualified for the most important final of his career and of course his presence at the US Open final a year ago!
The 24-year-old Russian became the only third player to win by defeating Rafa in a best of three matches on a hard surface (in 178 matches in total…), 3-6, 7-6 (4), 6-3 And he will be Dominic Tim’s opponent in Sunday’s grand final at the ATP Finals in London!
Unbelievable stuff in an unbelievable match for the Russian that prevented Nadal from serving for the match at 5-4 of the second set, a huge missed opportunity for Rafa to return to the Finals after 2013 avoiding meeting Novak Djokovic there. .
This year, however, it wasn’t his turn to lift this title either!
Medvedev, despite the ups and downs he had in the match, managed to maintain his composure and play incredible tennis where he really needed it, eventually defeating Nadal, who ran out of strength towards the end of the match.
As we knew after Novak Djokovic’s defeat by Dominic Tim, we will have a new winner of the ATP Finals this year and it will be the winner of the US Open, Tim or the recent winner of the Paris Masters, Medvedev who is going to win the ATP Finals. unbeaten. While it had a tragic form before Paris!
And with what great shock he reached the classification!
The Russian entered the match very well, pressing better than Nadal and constantly threatening the Spanish’s serve, but struggled at break points with the Spaniard playing crucial points perfectly.
Medvedev lost three break points, making a “parade” on his serve, holding easily until 3-4, where his only bad service game came.
He did not serve a single first serve and Nadal did not miss the opportunity by making the break that gave him wings to successfully serve the 1-0 seconds later.
As impressive as Rafa finished the first set, he entered the second just as badly.
He dropped his performance abruptly with Medvedev playing very focused and the Russian reached 3-0 very quickly taking the reins of the team clearly.
The set seemed to get completely out of Nadal’s control when the Russian had a break point to take a 5-1 lead, however there Nadal finally made a very critical hold that was going to drastically change the history of the set!
Medvedev suffered a total collapse and lost four games in a row to Nadal, quite unexpectedly, serving for the match at 5-4 and having a unique opportunity to close the match in straight sets.
But a disastrous service game came again for Rafa who lost it without winning a point and finally the two tennis players went to the tie break.
Medvedev was incredibly lucky with a point at 4-3 when he was against the “ropes” but a wrong defense turned into λεια a perfect balloon that hung Rafa and finally won the process with 7-4 equalizing the match and taking the momentum in front to the third set!
The battle continued!
The two tennis players went hand in hand until 3-3, however, Medvedev was the one who most threatened Nadal’s serve and brought more freshness to the court.
Finally, in a marathon match where Rafa tooth and nail fought for his life, the Russian made the long-awaited break 4-3 and did not look back.
Rafa “emptied” himself completely, psychologically and physically, and lost his service again at 5-3, saying goodbye to London without tasting a title there from 2009 until now.
But the day belongs to the “fresh blood”.
Tim and Medvedev won the sports legends by taking a great place in a grand final that starts 50/50 – an incredible, hopefully, final game of a troublesome and very difficult season that can lead to a much calmer 2021!
ATP FINAL DRAWING | OOP (-2h)
Costas Aitakis
