The last two weeks can be called the most successful in the career of Russian Daniil Medvedev. First, he reached the final of the ATP 500 competition in Washington, and then repeated this achievement at the Masters series tournament in Montreal. For the 23-year-old Muscovite, this success was significant, because he had never before played in a decisive match at such prestigious competitions.
This value was added to the victory during the tournament in Canada over the fourth number of the ATP general classification Dominic Tim and Briton Kyle Edmund, whom he had never beat before.
The first in the history of the Russian semi-final of the Masters series tournament in history stands apart, in which Medvedev confidently defeated Karen Khachanov. Although Daniel admitted that he does not like to play against his compatriot, he noted that success in this match meant a lot to him. It is not surprising, because in the end he beat his counterpart in the ranking and became the first racket of the country.
However, while on the eve of Saturday's meeting, Medvedev was considered a clear favorite, before the final, the Russian acted as a clear outsider. And this is not surprising, because his opponent was Rafael Nadal. During his career, a living tennis legend won Masters tournaments 34 times and excelled four times at the Canadian Open. For the first time this tournament obeyed him in 2005, and the last time - a year ago. Then in the finals he defeated the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas in two sets.
Rafael also spoke in favor of the fact that on the way to the finals he spent one match less than his counterpart. Due to the refusal of Gael Monfils, he avoided the fight in the semifinals, which greatly facilitated his schedule. Otherwise, he would have to go to court twice in less than a day.
Among other things, in Montreal Nadal met much less eminent rivals than Medvedev. The Spaniard alternately prevailed over the representative of the sixth dozen of the rating Daniel Evans and not enough stars from the sky Guido Pella, only in the quarter-finals he received a serious opponent in the person of Fabio Fognini. It turned out that Rafael was so unprepared for such a sharp change in the level of the enemy that he lost the first set. True, then he came to his senses and in subsequent games gave only three games.
The intrigue to the final confrontation was given by the fact that previously tennis players had never crossed each other in official matches, and Medvedev promised to give battle to his illustrious rival. In addition, Daniel had before his eyes the example of Khachanov, who in November 2018 won his first Masters in his career, being stronger than Novak Djokovic himself.
However, Daniel could not repeat the feat of his compatriot and become the third Russian in the last ten years, who managed to win the Masters series tournament. Medvedev in two sets lost to Nadal and could not keep company Khachanov and Nikolai Davydenko, who excelled at the competition in Shanghai in 2009.
It is worth noting that the Russian quite successfully started the meeting and could immediately take the opponent’s pitch. With a score of 40:40, the athletes held a grueling draw of 32 shots, in which Medvedev turned out to be more cold-blooded. But he failed to develop success. After a few seconds, he sent the ball into the net from the reception, and then allowed Nadal to take the game.
As a result, Medvedev was never able to earn a break. Unlike the fight with Fognini, Nadal quickly returned to vigilance and no longer gave his counterpart no chance of success. At first, the Russians were saved only by a confident game on their pitch, but since the middle of the first game and in this aspect, obvious problems have been outlined.
In the fourth game, Medvedev was very nervous. He was mistaken on not the most difficult balls and acted too straightforwardly, which allowed the Spaniard to lead with a score of 40:15. The Russian tried to regain the lost, but was able to win back only one point. Then a double mistake followed, which predetermined the outcome of the game.
Medvedev was not able to create serious problems for Nadal in the first set, but in the second he finally broke down. The Russian lost six games in a row and allowed the Spaniard to issue a "steering wheel". At the same time, he showed really fierce resistance only when the score was 0: 4, when he won two break points on his pitch.
Thus, Medvedev was defeated in the second ATP tournament final of the week. On August 4, he was unable to deal with Nick Kiryos in Washington. However, even an insulting defeat from Nadal did not stop Daniel from rising to eighth line in the ATP rating and becoming the first Russian racket.
In addition, on the eve of the US Open, such a successful performance by Medvedev on hard can not but inspire optimism in his fans. Already at the end of August, he will begin his performance in New York and on paper has every chance to surpass his best achievement on American courts. In 2018, he reached the third round, where in three sets he lost to the Croatian Borne Choric.