For the first time in his career: Medvedev defeated Nadal and reached the final of the ATP Final tournament

On the eve of the match, Nadal was considered the favorite.

Firstly, his numerous regalia and titles spoke for the Spaniard, including 20 victories at Grand Slam tournaments.

Secondly, superiority in personal meetings: the Russian has met with the second racket of the world three times, but has never been able to cope with him.

The last time it happened was at the 2019 ATP Final.

Then the athletes took three sets to determine the winner, and the decisive one ended in a tie-break.

Nevertheless, if a year ago Medvedev's chances of success were considered low, this time it was a little different.

An excellent performance in the group stage, which included victories over Novak Djokovic, Alexander Zverev and Diego Schwartzman, set fans and experts in a major mood.

So, many predicted the victory of the Russian, and the famous tennis player Andrei Chesnokov expressed the opinion that Daniel was ripe for the first time to defeat Raphael.

The debut of the first game was completely dictated by Medvedev.

In three games on his serve, the Russian invariably hit the first ball and took over without any problems, and regularly caused problems to the Spaniard on a stranger.

Three times he took the first rally at the reception, and when the score was 1: 1 he had three breaks, but none of them realized.

Against this background, the eighth game has become a kind of anomaly.

The Russian never hit the first ball on his serve and lost it to zero.

The last rally was especially offensive.

Daniel had a good combination and knocked Rafael off the court, but at a key moment he made a mistake.

Nadal became only the second tennis player to make a break in the confrontation with Medvedev in the current Final Tournament.

Previously, only Zverev could boast of such a thing.

Despite the failure in the first game, the second began entirely under Medvedev's dictation.

He again looked extremely good on his serve, but, in addition, he became much sharper on the reception.

Not without the help of Nadal, who played the second game extremely hesitantly.

Rafael again began to experience problems with hitting the first ball, which was used by Daniel.

And when the score was 15:40, the Spaniard made a double and was in the role of catching up.

It seemed that the Russian had the second set in his pocket.

He was leading 4: 1 and had a hidden set-ball on the opponent's serve, but got nervous and began to make one mistake after another.

For the entire game, he had ten of them - twice as many as his counterpart.

Daniel was able to recover only after four lost games.

Nadal went out to serve for the match, but Medvedev won four rallies in a row, and subsequently brought the matter to a tie-break.

At this moment, many probably remembered last year's opposition of athletes at the Final Tournament in London.

Then Medvedev was just as confidently leading during the third game (5: 1), but subsequently lost five games in a row and was one step away from defeat.

Then the fate of the set was also decided in the shortened game, which Nadal took without much difficulty (7: 4).

This time everything turned out exactly the opposite.

The Russian continued to collect aces (only seven per batch), and also scored a number of first-class hits.

So, during one of the rallies, Daniel performed a beautiful blow from the backhand in a jump in the style of Marat Safin.

After that, although Nadal tried to resist, he was no longer able to compete.

As a result, 7: 4 in favor of Daniel and an overwhelming advantage in actively won balls (21: 8) at the end of the set.

Apparently, the tie-break defeat had a big impact on Nadal.

In the final set, the Spaniard gave up noticeably and often began to make unforced mistakes.

As a result, there were 17 such players for the whole game, which became one of the worst indicators for him in the Final Tournament.

Medvedev, on the other hand, acted almost flawlessly (two mistakes), was invulnerable when hit with the first ball (86% of won rallies), and was also very dangerous on reception.

In total, he earned five break points, two of which he realized.

In the seventh game, he first came out ahead, and with the score 5: 3 put an end to the match.

Medvedev beat Nadal for the first time in his career and became the third Russian to reach the final of the ATP Final Tournament.

Before him, only Evgeny Kafelnikov and Nikolai Davydenko were able to do this.

Only Davydenko was able to take the trophy.

As for Rafael, he remained the only representative of the “big three” who never won the final of the world tour.

Medvedev's rival in the final will be Dominic Tim, who left Novak Djokovic out of work in a tense match.

The Austrian was stronger in three sets, thanks to which he set several achievements.

He became the second tennis player since 2016 to make his way to the Final Tournament finals for two years in a row, and also won his 300th meeting of the tour.

The match turned out to be extremely tense and competitive, which confirms the final score.

The tennis players were very confident in their serve, as a result of which the number of break points was reduced to a minimum.

For three games, there were a total of five of them, while only one of them was realized.

With the score 5: 5 in the first set, Tim turned out to be luckier and took the game to the reception, after which he confidently brought the matter to victory.

The most intense was the second set.

Djokovic had three break points, two of which with the score 6: 5 in his favor, but still could not avoid a tiebreak.

It turned out to be extremely protracted, and it took 22 draws to determine the triumphant.

As a result, Novak was able to play four match-balls and, on the fourth attempt, still restored parity.

Tim was not helped by a solid superiority in the number of actively won goals (18: 9) and aces (6: 1).

In the final game, the tennis players did not betray themselves.

Both confidently held their serves, and Tim continued to act in a more attacking manner.

Nevertheless, this time the opponents did not even come close to making a break, and again brought matters to a shortened game.

On paper, Djokovic was considered the favorite, losing only one tie-break out of 15 this season (to Kyle Edmund at the US Open).

And four consecutive games won only strengthened the belief in the success of the Serb.

However, Dominic won six points in a row and took over with a score of 7: 5.

This success allowed Tim to join Andy Murray and become the second tennis player in history to beat each of the Big Three more than five times.

So, the Austrian has five wins each over Djokovic and Federer with seven and two defeats, respectively.

In the confrontation with Rafael Nadal, the Spaniard is ahead - 9: 6.