Full-time battles of Russian tennis players at the decisive stages of prestigious competitions are not the most frequent event. Representatives of the weaker sex who regularly delighted fans with Russian finals in the mid-2000s can boast of such achievements, but men could not achieve this even in the era of Marat Safin and Nikolai Davydenko, who were regularly in the top 10 of the ATP rating. Since the semi-finals, the Russians have never crossed paths, both at the “majors” and at the Masters series tournaments.
This event first happened in August 2019. In the battle for a ticket to the Rogers Cup final, two Russians met - Karen Khachanov and Daniil Medvedev. And this despite the fact that on the way to the semifinals, both had to fight with more than one strong opponent. So, Karen alternately prevailed over the three-time winner of the Grand Slam tournaments Stanislas Wavrinka, the talented Canadian Felix Auger-Allassim, as well as the seventh racket of the world Alexander Zverev. Moreover, before the championship in Montreal, he had a negative balance in the confrontations with both the Swiss and the German.
But if Khachanov needed eight sets on the court to reach the semifinals, then Medvedev had six. And this despite the fact that his opponents included promising Christian Garin, inconvenient for him Kyle Edmund and the fourth racket of the world Dominic Tim. Prior to this, the last two have never conceded to the Russian, but Daniel did not leave a chance to any of his counterparts. This is eloquently evidenced by the fact that during the entire tournament he never lost more than three games per game.
Medvedev's vivid performance in Canada automatically made him a favorite of the Russian semifinal, but in terms of experience the advantage was clearly on the side of his opponent. Earlier, Khachanov had twice reached the final of the Masters series of tournaments and once even won it. It happened in October 2018 in Paris, where Karen got the better of the first racket of the world Novak Djokovic. Daniil, however, did not submit this step before, and his best achievement was reaching the semi-finals of the competition in Monte Carlo.
The statistics of in-person matches could not swing the scales in the direction of Khachanov. Athletes did not intersect so often and over the past three years shared the court strictly once a year. And in 2017, they met at the youth final tournament ATP (Next Gen), where Medvedev took the upper hand. The next match was held at the Kremlin Cup victory for Karen, where he won the semi-finals.
An additional principle to the match in Montreal was given by the fact that, if successful, Medvedev could take away the title of Russia's first racket from Khachanov. Prior to this meeting, Daniel was in ninth place in the ATP ranking and 145 points behind Karen in eighth place. For reaching the final, he could get 240 points more than his compatriot (600 against 360). And this is not counting the hypothetical victory, for which 1000 points are due.
Already in the course of the first set, it became clear that Medvedev was not in vain considered a favorite. He quickly turned on the maximum speed and caught Khachanov by surprise. The stumbling block for Karen was the serve of Daniel, in which he won a total of only two draws. Moreover, he himself experienced serious problems with this element, falling into the square with the first ball in only 39% of cases. As a result, he took only one game and without a fight gave the first batch.
In the course of the second set, Khachanov perked up and was able to level the game. The flow returned to normal, aces began to turn out, but stability was clearly not enough. So, Karen twice allowed the opponent to make a break and, at the cost of tremendous efforts, regained the lost game. As a result, this led the tennis players to a tie-break, where the fate of the ticket to the finals was decided.
Khachanov led with a score of 4: 2, but Medvedev in time regained control of the game and again burst forward. The episode when the referee first mistakenly determined an out after his hit, and then appointed a replay and actually deprived him of a match-ball, did not embarrass him. Fortune returned the favor in the decisive rally, when the ball hit the net after Daniel’s strike, but bounced to the opponent’s side.
Medvedev beat Khachanov for the second time and will soon compete for his first victory in Masters series tournaments. It is worth noting that for him this exit to the finals was the second in a week - on August 4, he fought for the trophy at competitions in Washington, but lost to Nick Kiryos.
The newly made first racket of Russia will be very difficult to win the tournament in Montreal, because in the final he will face the great Rafael Nadal. In addition, the Spaniard will have a slight advantage, because his semi-final rival Gael Monfils was forced to refuse to continue the fight because of health problems.