Rematch for the US Open: Djokovic barely defeated Medvedev in the final of the Paris Masters

The last Masters tournament of the season was held in Paris. This year, the fans were lucky to see a real dream final - the last two winners of the tournament and the first two rackets of the world fought for the title on the Bercy courts. Serb Novak Djokovic was opposed by Russian Daniil Medvedev, whose confrontation is already becoming a real tennis classic.

Medvedev's path to the final turned out to be quite difficult. In the first match with the Belarusian Ilya Ivashka, the Russian led with a score of 5: 1 and had three set points, but missed all his advantage - all this was reminiscent of his last match in Indian Wells, lost to Grigor Dimitrov. Medvedev still won that game, and with it the match, but continued to make his fans nervous. In the 1/8 finals, he lost the first set to the young American Sebastian Corda. Fortunately, he did not have enough experience to bring the fight to victory. In the following games, Medvedev has already given only four games to his opponent.

At first, the Parisian public was worried about last year's champion, but their mood changed when the Frenchman Hugo Gaston became Medvedev's opponent. The fans defiantly reacted to any mistake of the second racket of the world, but they seemed to have forgotten that under such pressure he only plays better. When Gaston took the lead 5-4 and earned a triple set point, Medvedev was able to recoup and take the game in a tie-break, and then won the next game. Thanks to this, the Russian got to the $ 20 million mark in career prize money.

In the semifinals, although Medvedev met with the Olympic champion and winner of two Masters of this season, Alexander Zverev from Germany, this match turned out to be the easiest for the Russian. Zverev did not look like himself either in the game on the back line or in the serve, he freaked out a lot and ended up only hitting two games in each set. Medvedev finished the Masters' sixth final in just 1:20.

Djokovic's career path was just as interesting. After a three-set victory over Hungarian Marton Fuchovic, he, on the refusal of Gael Monfils, advanced to the quarterfinals and beat Taylor Fritz from the USA there. In the meeting with the Pole Hubert Hurkach, the Serb again gave up a little slack and lost the first game, but then won the second dry and ended the match in his favor following the tiebreaker results. Reaching the final allowed Djokovic to achieve a truly historic achievement - he secured himself the first place in the ATP rankings for the seventh time at the end of the season and broke Pete Sampras' record set 23 years ago.

Interestingly, in the status of the best tennis player in the world, Djokovic met with 82 different opponents and achieved a positive balance of games with 81 of them. The only exception was Medvedev - he beat the first racket from Serbia four times and lost only two times. The last defeat was especially offensive for Djokovic. The Russian defeated him in the US Open final and did not allow him to win a career Grand Slam. Memories of that failure were still fresh when the last two Masters champions in Paris met at the Bercy courts.

The beginning of the match was also not in favor of Djokovic. He lost the first two games, making six unforced errors, while Medvedev showed an extremely clear game. But the Serbian tennis player quickly pulled himself together. In response, he won eight points in a row, one of which was presented by the Russian himself with a double mistake. Djokovic continued to own the initiative and even had a break point with the score 3: 2 in his favor, until Medvedev set up the serve.

In the seventh game, the first racket of the world started having problems again.

Three mistakes in a row led to a triple break point.

Medvedev went to the net and used his chance.

In the future, he more than once scored the necessary points in this way, but his main weapon was the serve, from which Djokovic could not find salvation.

The Russian tennis player slowly brought the set to victory and won five games in a row against the Serb, if we take into account their joint training before the Masters.

The perfect play 🧠 @ DaniilMedwed goes up a break on Djokovic in the first set! # RolexParisMasterspic.twitter.com / 7iSw9ZA9nR

- Tennis TV (@TennisTV) November 7, 2021

Medvedev achieved excellence in serving in the fourth game of the second set. He performed three aces in a row. But to everyone's surprise, there was no benefit from this second racket of the world. The Russian suddenly lost sight, and the ball stopped flying over the net. Four misfires in a row led to a completely illogical break for Djokovic, which he began to zealously defend. He also mastered timely exits to the grid and due to them did not give Medvedev the opportunity to control the game.

The Russian tennis player tried to save the game with the score 3: 5.

He won several beautiful rallies, during which he made everyone wonder about his agility and tenacity.

Twice Medvedev was one step away from playing the break, but could not recoup.

Soon he already had to play the set points, which Djokovic diligently earned by reaching the grid.

When he got tired of the Russian's resistance, he simply put an end to the game with an ace.

Here, there and EVERYWHERE ⚡️ @ DjokerNole raising his level in the second set! # RolexParisMasterspic.twitter.com / BupZvtmmFU

- Tennis TV (@TennisTV) November 7, 2021

Medvedev has already spent the third set below his capabilities, while Djokovic did not slow down. After exchanging games on his serve, he began to outplay the Russian on the back line, where even in this match Medvedev usually felt comfortable. Djokovic won three games in a row, including two on someone else's serve, and at that moment the reigning champion lost his nerves. He gave a tirade to the spectator, who shouted under the arm while throwing the ball, and received a warning from the referee for this.

Such a shake-up helped Medvedev to pull himself together and deliver one exemplary game on Djokovic's serve, but it was too late to save the whole match.

Not a trace remained of the Russian's confident serve, and the Serbian tennis player easily imposed his game at the reception.

On the first try, he realized matchball and set another incredible achievement - he won the Master Series tournament for the 37th time in his career and broke the record of Rafael Nadal.

Also, the Serb spent the 13th season of his career, during which he won at least one title in this series.

NOVAK-ATION FROM TITLETOWN 🏆🇷🇸

The moment @DjokerNole won a record-breaking 37th Masters 1000 title vs Medvedev in Paris! # RolexParisMasterspic.twitter.com / m57J45xit8

- Tennis TV (@TennisTV) November 7, 2021

This season, the top two rackets in the world will have two more opportunities to meet each other, circumstances permitting.

A week later, the ATP Final Tournament will begin in Turin, where Medvedev will defend the title of the winner, and then the final round of the Davis Cup will take place, for which the national teams of Russia and Serbia are announced.