The 10th installment of the Daniil Medvedev vs. Stefanos Tsitsipas rivalry saw the Greek emerge a 7-6(6), 3-6, 6-3 winner on Saturday night at the Western & Southern Open. The fourth seed used his all-court game to great effect to earn a hugely satisfying result against one of his most challenging rivals, closing the gap to 3-7 in the pair's ATP Head2Head series with the help of 36 net approaches.
“I knew I had to sign up for a difficult task, third set, it wasn’t going to be easy," Tsitsipas said post-match. "He made it very physical and really demanding for me. I just took advantage of some of his missed first serves. I think I had a couple opportunities where it seemed to be going towards to my side."
[ATP APP]
Two sets of high-quality tennis — both won by Tsitsipas — bookended a bizarre middle stanza in which both men lost focus for alternating stretches. The Greek saved a set point in the first-set tie-break as he won its final three points to lead, but quickly fell behind 0-5 in the second thanks to some untimely double faults.
He avoided the bagel and then some, getting to 0/40 as Medvedev served at 5-3, but could not convert and instead took his momentum into the final set.
Tsitsipas claimed the lone break point of the final set in its sixth game, courtesy of a Medvedev double fault, and cooly served out the match to love with the help of strong net play — a formula he leaned on time and again throughout the two-hour, 23-minute match.
"He kept missing a lot of first serves consecutively and that gave me some time to think of my next move a little bit clearer," Tsitsipas said, alluding to his opponents 49 per cent first-serve percentage. "He gave me a double fault on break point, which I think was very important moment for me psychologically to give my best shot. I was a few games away and I was very calm and concentrated in every single task that was given to me."
The fourth seed won 75 per cent (27/36) of his net points in the match, showing great patience as he worked his way into attack in the rallies. While he hit some world-class volleys, his knack for well-timed approaches left him with a straightforward task on many of his trips to the frontcourt — at least as simple as it can be against the rangy Medvedev, who flashed his elite retrieving skills with a stunning forehand pass on the fullest of full stretches as he chased parity late in the final set.
"There were some difficult shots I had to play a bit more," Tsitsipas said of his measured game plan. "A few short balls I really took advantage of and came in. A lot of courageous serve and volleys, approaches to the net that definitely gave me that great win today.”
Did You Know?
All four of Tsitsipas' hard-court titles have come indoors on the ATP Tour, including his triumph at the 2019 Nitto ATP Finals.