Unsuccessful defense: Medvedev lost to Zverev in the final of the ATP Final tournament

Russian tennis player Daniil Medvedev failed to defend the title of winner of the ATP Final Tournament.

In the final of the last individual competition of the year, he lost in two sets to German player Alexander Zverev.

The fight between the second and third rackets of the world lasted only 75 minutes and ended in two sets.

Zverev's participation in the decisive match was quite unexpected.

The day before, he met in the semifinals with the first racket of the world, Novak Djokovic, who was the favorite.

The Serb has a winning streak of eight matches that began at the Masters in Paris, and in 2021 he lost only six times.

But one of those who managed to stop Djokovic was just Zverev.

The 24-year-old Hamburg native beat a 20-time Grand Slam winner at the Tokyo Olympics.

After that, the Serbian tennis player took revenge at the US Open, but in Turin Zverev again proved to be stronger than the leader of the ATP rating, proving this after a three-set match.

For Medvedev, the path to the final of the ATP Final Tournament was much easier.

In his match with the Norwegian Kasper Ruud, he gave only six games and never allowed an opponent to get close to a break point.

In addition, the Russian spent his Saturday match much earlier and got more time to recover than Zverev, who played late.

In theory, this increased Medvedev's chances of eventual success, which were already good enough, judging by their history of face-to-face meetings.

The 25-year-old Russian has beaten Zverev in the last five matches, including in Turin in the group stage, which allowed him to lead in a head-to-head confrontation with a score of 6: 5.

Interestingly, by the final of the Final Tournament, they both won 58 matches per season, and the one who would have recorded another victory as an asset would become the most successful tennis player of the year in this respect.

The opponents started the title match with quickly played games on their serves, after which Medvedev suddenly started having problems. Two mistakes in a row and a soft blow that provoked Zverev to counterattack, brought the German tennis player a triple break point. The cable helped to realize it, from which the ball landed offensively on Medvedev's court. Zverev did not allow him to recoup immediately - in the next game he served so powerfully that the Russian had no chances. At that time, 12 of the last 13 played points remained behind the third racket of the world.

Medvedev managed to beat Zverev in long rallies, but the problem for the reigning champion of the Final Tournament was that there were very few such moments in the first set.

If the Russian had to take, then Zverev needed a couple of powerful blows to add another point to his piggy bank.

The German tennis player also favorably distinguished himself with his confidence and composure, with which he sometimes skillfully repeated Medvedev's favorite techniques, such as a strong second serve or early exits to the net.

Zverev won the set with a score of 6: 4, never allowing his opponent to earn more than one point on reception.

Moreover, the Russian made only one active rally.

Medvedev taught fans that in the second set he can rebuild and start all over again. But this time he immediately lost the game on his serve, and without forcing Zverev to make any efforts - one double and one unforced errors on a break point were enough. Gradually, Medvedev nevertheless began to show signs of aggression and in one of the games won three points in a row with his active actions.

Only it did not help to win back the break - Zverev was still unapproachable on the pitch.

The highest achievement of Medvedev at the reception was the score 40:40 in the sixth game, from which the German tennis player immediately took the lead and took 4: 2.

Zverev did not waste his energy on making the second break, as he knew perfectly well that he would definitely win his games.

He ended the match with an ace on the second serve and became a two-time winner of the ATP Final Tournament, depriving Medvedev of the opportunity to try on the title himself.

After losing the final, Medvedev predicted that Zverev would win the Grand Slam tournament, the only competition he had not yet won.

“Sasha is a great player. Of course he can win the Helmet. But not only him. Who knows, maybe if he was in the final in the USA this year, he would have beaten me. Each tournament is a new scenario ... Sasha is ahead of Stefanos (Tsitsipas -

)

on points

, he scored an excellent move. Took a bunch of glasses. I don't know how far behind me he is. With such results, he naturally claims to be the first in the world. There are four “Helmets”, you have to win them if you want to be the first, ”the Russian said to“ Championship ”.

For Zverev, the current season is over, and Medvedev will return to court.

From November 25 to December 5, he will play in the final stage of the Davis Cup as part of the Russian national team.

In the team with him will be Andrei Rublev, Aslan Karatsev, Karen Khachanov and Evgeny Donskoy, and of the top 10 players in the tournament, Serb Novak Djokovic and Italian Matteo Berrettini will also perform.