The rival Medvedev, a full-fledged contender
Osaka - Punish Brady's inexperience and win his fourth Grand Slam title
Since winning
the first of his eight Australian Open finals
against
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
in 2008
,
Novak Djokovic
has encountered different adversaries and circumstances.
Nobody, not even in extreme situations, has managed to defeat him.
Only Rafael Nadal surpasses him, and with a wide margin, at Roland Garros: 13 of 13 on the final Sunday.
A
Roger Federer
escaped him four of the 12 who played at Wimbledon.
Pete Sampras
took all seven on the London grass, but missed three of the eight plays at the US Open, one of them, in 2000, against
Marat Safin
, the protagonist of an authentic exhibition: 6-4, 6-3 and 6-3 the Russian struck him.
Can
Daniil Medvedev
play Safin in the final that this Sunday (9:30 am, Eurosport) will play against Djokovic?
To start with, they present few similarities.
Beyond being Russian, they don't have much in common.
Safin was an exuberant player, with natural abilities uncommon in tennis history.
It was also cowardly, given to self-destructive outburst, far from the percussive consistency of Medvedev's game.
When Safin won the US Open, he was 20 years old.
He only took another big one, in Australia, five years later.
He retired at 29. With a slower progression, his professional involvement much greater, Medvedev, 25, lost his previous Grand Slam final: in five sets, against Nadal, in 2019, not without first starring in a reaction that made fear for the victory of the Spanish, who dominated by two sets to zero.
He arrives with the best predicament: three consecutive titles, Paris-Bercy and the ATP Finals, last year, and the ATP Cup, where he led the Russian team.
Add 20 games undefeated.
The impact of the US Open
Djokovic, better in the last two games, after overcoming his abdominal injury, appears with more than four hours on the court than his rival has needed.
He seems a diminished player since the unfortunate and avoidable set that cost him disqualification against
Pablo Carreño
in the round of 16 at the US Open.
Shortly after he was able to meet Nadal in a new Roland Garros final, but was fired (6-0, 6-2 and 7-5), when circumstances seemed to favor him more than ever on a surface that is not his.
Later, they fell in the quarterfinals of Vienna (
Sonego
) and in the semifinals of the ATP Finals (
Thiem
).
He won both of his ATP Cup matches.
Having noted all this, it is convenient not to neglect the Serbian, who on March 8 will surpass the 310 weeks of Federer as number 1 in the world.
Even less in Australia, where he has won four finals against
Andy Murray
(2011, 2013, 2015 and 2016), two against Nadal (2012 and 2019) and one against Thiem (2020), in addition to the one mentioned against Tsonga.
He has done it in every possible way.
Against Nadal in 2012, it took five hours and 53 minutes, in the longest Grand Slam final.
Two years ago he inflicted the most overwhelming defeat in their duels in the
majors
: 6-3, 6-4 and 6-2.
Against Thiem, in 2020, he looked dead before winning in five sets.
Look for the 18th big.
And if that was not enough.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
Know more
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