The Russian national team won the second match in the group stage of the ATP Сup. Domestic tennis players defeated the Australians ahead of schedule. The hosts of the competition successfully performed in the starting meeting, being stronger than the Italians, but Daniil Medvedev and Roman Safiullin did not allow them to build on their success. The debutant of the national team, ranked 167th in the world rankings, had a very good match against the Frenchman Arthur Rinderknesh. The meeting with the experienced James Duckworth turned out to be no less striking. The 29-year-old Australian had a successful last season, moving up from 103rd in the ATP rankings to 49th. He made it to the third round at Wimbledon and to the quarter-finals of the Masters in Paris. This year he has not yet appeared on the court. In the match with the Italians, Duckworth withdrew at the last moment, and Max Purcell came out to play with Yannick Sinner. So it was unknownwhat is the physical condition of the tennis player after rest.
James confidently started the match, immediately making a break on Safiullin's serve, and took the lead 2: 0. Roman, as in the game with Rinderknesh, felt the game for the third game on the opponent's serve. It lasted 10 minutes 24 seconds and became the longest in the match. The Russian took a point, having managed to realize only the sixth break point in a row. Duckworth himself helped Safiullin feel confident on the court. The Australian did not have the first serve - only 43% of hits per set, and the second did not cause problems for Roman, who over and over again imposed a fight on his opponent. However, despite this, the advantage in the score remained with James. He managed to make another break and took the lead 5: 2.
Safiullin's plans did not include giving up, the athlete continued to cling to the glasses at the reception. And again, as in the match with the Frenchman, he worked a miracle! The Russian won four games in a row, making two breaks, and for the first time in the match came out ahead in the score. The premonition of an imminent victory in the set played a cruel joke with Roman. At the decisive moment, perhaps trying to complicate the second serve, he made a double fault. As a result, it came to a tie-break, which began alarmingly for the fans of the Russian national team. Safiullin gave the first point, making another double mistake. Fortunately, Roman coped with the excitement quickly enough and regained the first serve, which did not work for Duckworth. This was the decisive factor - Safiullin won the tie-break with a score of 8: 6.
The second batch began with Roman's serve game, which he took to zero.
At the reception, it was possible to fight.
Duckworth made his serve as simple as possible in order to still play the first ball.
However, he didn’t do it very well.
The hit percentage was even lower than in the first set, only 39%.
Safiullin, on the contrary, acted confidently.
At the reception, the Australian looked helpless, only managing to take the first points in the middle of the set.
The outcome of the match was quite natural.
With the score 5: 4 in favor of the Russian, Duckworth went to serve.
Safiullin won the first draws, and then earned two match-balls, one of which was able to convert - 6: 4.
The head of the Russian Tennis Federation Shamil Tarpischev highly appreciated the performance of Roman.
In his opinion, the athlete gained confidence after defeating Riederknesh.
“Safiullin is now showing his best tennis. Exactly at the top 50 level. In his match, things could have been more complicated, but he won the first set, losing on the move 2: 5. This gave him a psychological head start over his opponent. He was clearly hooked, began to see few ways to victory. At the same time, Duckworth was still stronger in terms of experience and class. But after winning the first match at the ATP Cup, Roman gained confidence and due to it he shows his best tennis, "Tarpischev said in an interview with RIA-Novosti.
Daniil Medvedev again, as in the match with the French, went to court in a very comfortable psychological state.
Still, his team was already leading with a score of 1: 0.
He knew his rival well.
They met with Alex De Minor three times, and all matches ended in favor of the Russian.
In addition, the 34th-ranked Australian is not playing well with the leaders.
With a victory over Matteo Beretini in the first match of the tournament, he ended a streak of nine defeats against opponents from the top 10.
Medvedev, who spent almost five hours on the court on the first day of the tournament, clearly did not want a repeat of the marathon.
The Russian started the game with two breaks.
He also had no problems with his serve - 75% of hits.
Daniel won 15 out of 18 draws in the first game.
Problems for the second racket of the world arose only in the fourth game: Medvedev unsuccessfully handled the ball and sent it into the net, and then made a double mistake, giving De Minor a break point, which the Australian took advantage of. However, the advantage gained at the beginning of the meeting was enough for the Russian to bring the matter to a confident victory in the game with a score of 6: 4.
The second set went with an even more obvious advantage of the Russian.
Medvedev again began with two breaks, not allowing the Australian to do anything on the court.
De Minor, for his part, made more and more mistakes in simple situations.
There was no longer any doubt about Daniel's victory.
However, with the score 5: 0, the Australian pulled himself together, was able to take two games, having played two match points of the Russian, and fought hard in the third.
Nevertheless, Medvedev's advantage was too great to be able to lose it.
The set ended with a score of 6: 2 in favor of Daniel.
Thus, the Russian national team defeated the hosts of the competition ahead of schedule, and the doubles meeting no longer played any role.
The national team has risen to first place in Group B and now has a good chance of reaching the semifinals of the competition.
Everything will be decided in the match with Italy, which will take place on January 6.