First triumph of the season: Medvedev won a strong-willed victory over Zverev in the Masters final in Paris

Russian tennis player Daniil Medvedev won the Masters series tournament in Paris.

In the final, he beat the representative of Germany Alexander Zverev in three sets.

For Medvedev, this title was the first in the last 13 months and the third in his career in tournaments of this category.

After defeating Milos Raonic in the semifinals, Medvedev had to wait a few more hours to find out who would be his rival in the decisive match.

The second finalist was determined in the confrontation between the second racket of the world, Rafael Nadal and Zverev, who occupies the seventh line in the ATP ranking.

The German tennis player eventually managed to gain the upper hand in two sets with a score of 6: 4, 7: 5.

Zverev approached the match with Medvedev with an impressive streak of 12 won matches, including two victories at tournaments in Cologne in October.

In Paris, in addition to Nadal, he beat the Serb Miomir Ketsmanovic, the Frenchman Adrian Mannarino and the Swiss Stan Wawrinka.

Mannarino was the only one who could win at least a set against Zverev on the courts of the Bercy sports complex.

Medvedev and Zverev have already met between themselves six times, and the score in their personal confrontation was far from on the side of the Russian.

He won only one victory, albeit the most significant in comparison with the rest of the matches - in the final of the Masters in Shanghai.

Since then, the first racket of Russia has not been able to break into the title match at the ATP tournaments for more than a year, although he was able to make it to the semifinals of the US Open, which allowed him to remain in the world ranking above Zverev in the fall.

In the first set, both opponents had a huge advantage in their serve, so that ten of the first 11 games ended very quickly without a hint of break points.

Only in the seventh game between the tennis players a little more stubborn struggle ensued, but Zverev still kept the serve.

It was logical to expect that the first batch would be transferred to a tie-break, but Medvedev unexpectedly made three mistakes in a row on his serve with the score 6: 5 in favor of the German athlete.

The Russian was able to play two set points, after which he got out, but he didn't lose a point right away - Zverev continued to hit the ball, and the moment was played.

Medvedev did not use the second chance to save the party and tore off the blow from the back line.

The Russian had already started the match in Paris with a lost set, so after another similar failure he only tried to avoid such obvious failures in his game.

Soon he tried to make a break in the second set, taking advantage of Zverev's inaccuracies in serving, which even led to double errors.

Medvedev earned four break points in one 15-minute game, but he could not realize any of them.

After that, the second game began to proceed as rapidly as the first, until Medvedev began to lengthen the rallies in the ninth game on Zverev's serve.

This move fully justified itself - the representative of Germany could not stand the given pace and gave up the game.

Taking his serve under zero, Medvedev immediately finished the set in his favor.

In the third game, the Russian tennis player completely outplayed his opponent.

He quickly won Zverev's serve and now he himself escaped from four return break points.

The German athlete lost his stability and lost four games out of the next five, ending the match with a double fault.

Medvedev became the fourth Russian to win the title in Bercy after Marat Safin, Nikolai Davydenko and Karen Khachanov.

He earned more than € 225 thousand and strengthened his fourth place in the ATP rankings, which he climbed even after defeating Diego Schwarzman in the quarterfinals.

The tennis player admitted that before arriving in Paris he was not at all confident in his form and was glad that everything ended with a final victory.

“It's great, I'm very happy.

I try not to show it after the games, but victories bring me great joy.

Before the tournament I was not in my best shape, I played well, but without finals this year.

He even complained to his wife: “My God, I have not reached the required level.

Not a single ending.

My game is no good. "

And finally I won a victory at Bercy, the tournament that I love.

This is my third Masters.

I am incredibly happy, ”Medvedev said.

Commenting on his career victory over Zverev, the Russian noted that he was ready to stop playing after the first set, but still found a way to turn the tide of the fight.

“I played very well at this tournament, especially today.

After the first set, I almost gave up, because Sasha served and played very well.

But I continued to play and at some point I started to raise my level of play higher and higher, I began to put pressure on him and it worked.

It broke his game a little, ”Medvedev added.

Now the first racket of Russia, as well as his compatriot Andrei Rublev, is waiting for the Final Tournament of the Year in London.

Medvedev lost all of his group stage matches last season, so he won't have to defend his points this time.

In theory, he could hope to surpass Austrian Dominic Thiem and climb to third place in the world rankings.