Warm-up in front of Nadal: Medvedev won his third victory in the ATP Final tournament

Easy victory for Medvedev

The current ATP Final Tournament has turned out to be truly significant for Russian tennis players.

For many years they could not even make it to this competition, and in 2020 two came to London at once: Andrei Rublev and Daniil Medvedev.

And if the first won only one victory in the group stage, then the second won all three group stage matches and became the first domestic athlete in 11 years to reach the semifinals of the tournament. 

It is especially important that on the way to the playoffs, the Muscovite managed to break the resistance of Novak Djokovic in two sets and get a compliment from him.

And already in the semifinals, Medvedev will face another great player - Rafael Nadal, whom Medvedev has never beat before. 

In this regard, the match with the ninth racket of the world Diego Schwarzman, who got into the tournament only thanks to Roger Federer's refusal, turned into a training session of increased complexity for Daniel.

And for the Argentine, he had no tournament value, because he lost to both Djokovic and Alexander Zverev and lost the chances of reaching the playoffs.

In the course of the match, it was felt that the Russian was not acting at one hundred percent of the possibilities.

Despite this, Medvedev still looked stronger than his opponent.

For example, Schwartzman never filed through the entire game and did not realize a single break point (he had only two).

Daniel won both sets with a score of 6: 3.

In the first, he almost made a break in the starting game, but the opponent, at the cost of great efforts, nevertheless tipped the scales in his favor.

However, the Russian still took the next serve of the Argentinean.

The second break of the fourth racket of the world has earned already in the last game.

He failed to realize the first setball, but he used the next one. 

In the second game, the game developed according to a similar scenario.

Medvedev took the opponent's serve with the score 2: 1 in his favor and calmly brought the matter to victory.

The only worrying moment for the native of Moscow came in the fifth game, when Schwartzman earned two break points.

However, Diego failed to bring the matter to victory. 

The Russian, on the other hand, effortlessly broke the opponent's resistance in 1 hour and 14 minutes.

The previous four face-to-face meetings also ended with Medvedev's victories.

“I have played excellently in the previous two matches.

I think it's always good to stay undefeated for self-confidence.

I wanted to win this meeting and I am very glad that I succeeded, "the press service of the APR quotes Medvedev as saying.

And on Saturday at 23:00 (Moscow time) the long-awaited confrontation with Nadal awaits him.

The Russian will have the opportunity not only to beat the Spaniard for the first time in his career, but also to get even for Rublev, who turned out to be weaker than Raphael in the group stage.  

“I love how all the Big Three tennis players play.

When I was so young that I was just starting to hold a racket in my hand and was interested in tennis, I started watching Grand Slam tournaments.

Federer was the first to win everything, then Rafa came and began to achieve success, and then there was Novak.

I am very pleased to play against all of them, ”added Medvedev.

Djokovic's revenge on Zverev

In another match of the playing day, Novak Djokovic and Alexander Zverev in a head-to-head confrontation determined which of them would play in the semifinals.

Previously, both proved to be stronger than Shvartsman, but lost to Medvedev. 

This meeting became the third in the history of the Final Tournament for the opponents.

Moreover, in 2018, their paths crossed twice.

At the group stage, the Serb was stronger (6: 4, 6: 1), and in the final - the German (6: 4, 6: 3). 

This time, the first racket of the world managed to take a convincing revenge from the opponent, having won with a score of 6: 3, 7: 6.

In the first set, the fight did not work out.

Zverev started the game extremely unsuccessfully and immediately allowed Djokovic to make a break.

Having achieved an important advantage, Novak did not miss his own, although in the seventh game he had to play a double break point. 

The second game turned out to be much more equal, and the tennis players did not manage to take each other's serve, although in several moments they were close to this.

As a result, the fate of the set was decided in a tie-break, where the experience and skill of the Serb affected - 7: 4.

Thus, for the first time in 16 years, all four top-ranked tennis players will play in the semifinals of the ATP Final Tournament: Djokovic (1), Nadal (2), Dominik Tim (3) and Medvedev (4).

Novak will try to win the World Tour Final for the sixth time in his career.