Daniil Medvedev was one step away from the final of the final ATP tournament. He had to get past Jannik Sinner, whom he had already defeated six times in his career. Unfortunately, this time it was not possible to achieve the desired result. The Russian angrily threw his racket, hid his face in shame after unsuccessful plays and listened to lectures from his wife. But no emotional shock could help cope with such a powerful Italian.

To the delight of the Turin public, Sinner reached the final.

“He’s in better shape”

Medvedev and Sinner previously met each other eight times: in six cases our tennis player won, but the last two confrontations were left to the 22-year-old Italian, which made us fear for the outcome of the match. Bookmakers were inclined to believe that Sinner would win on home soil, offering to bet on him with odds of 1.70, while the odds for a Russian victory were 2.25.

By the way, it was not only the recent victories in personal meetings and the support of the stands that made it possible to talk about Yannick’s advantage. At the group stage, the Italian went undefeated, successively defeating the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, the Serbian Novak Djokovic and the Danish Holger Rune. Medvedev had victories over another Russian, Andrei Rublev, and a German representative, Alexander Zverev. But the former world ranking leader lost to the Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, after which he rather cautiously assessed his chances in the semifinals.

– At the moment he is in the best shape, the results prove it. So he is capable of anything. He can play service-and-volley, but at the same time he plays very well on the back line. Throws short shots, cuts, moves along the line, hits crosses. He can do everything, that’s why he’s a top tennis player. In Vienna I responded well to what he proposed in Beijing, but still lost. So we need to play even better, react even better to his blows,” Medvedev said at a press conference about his future opponent.

A well-deserved passage to the final

Sinner started the match confidently and took his first serve. Daniil did not want to let his opponent go, and in the third game he even had a chance for a break. Alas, he failed to do this, but the Italian was able to seize an important advantage on Medvedev’s next serve, returning from 0:40. Then all he had to do was maintain his advantage. Since Yannick’s serve didn’t falter too much, and he acted confidently on the back line, the first game went to him – 6:3.

Daniil Medvedev and Jannik Sinner / Photo: © Clive Brunskill / Staf / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

The second set turned out to be even. Both tennis players had real chances to get ahead, but did not take advantage of these opportunities. Daniil’s wife Daria watched her husband’s actions very closely, Medvedev tried to make a break, in the eighth game he was close to success, but individual victories in long rallies did not help. It eventually came to a tiebreaker, where our tennis player had a great serve, and during the rallies he desperately clung to every ball. The result was a victory in the set 7:6, but the joy of the Russian fans did not last long. Our tennis player invited a physiotherapist and took a medical break, complaining of pain.

The third set almost immediately began to go poorly for Medvedev. A double fault on his own serve – and now Sinner has a 2:0 advantage. Daniel clutched his face in shame; his wife reprimanded him something from the stands. After another failure, our athlete threw his racket towards the side camera, causing anger among the fans, who already did not like the Russian. And Yannick continued to churn out serves, pulled some incredible balls and brought the matter to a convincing victory, taking the final game to zero – 6:1. After such a victory, the Italian deservedly goes to the final.