Medvedev failed to lift the curse. Cramps prevented title defense

Although Daniil Medvedev has not won a single Grand Slam this season, the Russian remains a major player on the hard court. Therefore, his exit to the next final of the season did not surprise anyone.

The tournament in Vienna was already the ninth time for Dani this year that our player reached the decisive match. Considering that Medvedev won in Austria last year, everyone was now waiting for the title defense.

But Jannik Sinner, who had defeated the Russian only once before, did not allow the curse to be lifted.

Sticky set

Despite the fact that Jannik Sinner is only 22 years old, Medvedev has already played with the young talent seven times. It is noteworthy that Danya began the current season with a victory over the Italian in the final of Rotterdam, then two months later he beat Sinner again in Miami and, in fact, increased the score in personal meetings to a tennis steering wheel – 6-0.

But autumn, in terms of success in the final matches, is not so lucky for our player. Following his defeat to Djokovic in the USA, Medvedev lost to Sinner for the first time in his career in Beijing. A very stubborn two-set match ended with the Italian winning in two tiebreaks.

Jannik Sinner / Photo: © Zhang Chenlin/XinHua/Global Look Press

Having moved from Asia to Europe, our tennis player again found himself in the final. This time in Vienna, where a year ago he already dealt with the Canadian Denis Shapovalov. Fans hoped that Medvedev had a great chance to defend his title for the first time in his career. Moreover, the decisive match had to be held with an already familiar opponent. Four finals in a season with the same opponent is a non-trivial statistic.

The meeting started off typical for these players. The Austrian public enjoyed the Italian’s killer serves, Dani’s incredibly high-quality technique and the excellent play of both on the back line. All this slowly but surely led the tennis players to a tiebreaker. Although Medvedev was the first to earn a set point in the game on the Italian’s serve with the score 6:5, the game did not deserve a quick ending.

The tiebreak was completely consistent with the play in the previous games: long rallies, powerful serves and even set points for both tennis players. But Yannick was luckier: 7:6 (8:6). The Italian won the third tiebreaker in a row, if you count two successes in Beijing at the beginning of October.

Incredible tension

The beginning of the second set was marked by an extremely long third game. Medvedev really wanted to make a break, but either luck or the Italian’s mistakes were lacking. Sinner fought off three break points and still led 2:1. But not for long. The next time Danya finally realized his advantage and got a break. Having led 3:2 and taking his serve, Medvedev managed to finish the set without surprises – 6:4.

Nobody expected an easy walk in the third game – both were ready to fight until they were half to death. A striking example of this is the fourth game, in which Sinner earned as many as nine break points. The score became 3:1 in favor of Yannick, he came out to serve in a comfortable situation and, perhaps, even a little relaxed. Danya took advantage of this, making a fairly quick return break.

But the joy of Russian fans did not last long. Medvedev returned his serve just as easily, again allowing his opponent to break away. And after losing the decisive rally, Danya suddenly limped, clutching his thigh – a cramp caused by incredibly long games. At this point, the athletes had been on the court for almost three hours.

The attraction for distributing games on its own serve has closed. Sinner won his game and even got a match point on Daniil’s serve, but no one has ever managed to make a break on the first try in this final – Medvedev bounced back. With the score 5:3, Yannick was supposed to decide the outcome of the fight, but he wavered – 15:40.

Danya seemed to have already accepted defeat, so he didn’t even know what to do with such a gift from his opponent. And he lost four draws in a row. The Italian leaves Medvedev without a title for the second time in three weeks. The task of defending the title remains unresolved for Daniil. So another attempt ended in failure.