The Professional Tennis Association’s (ATP) final tournament ended Sunday in Turin, Italy, with the victory of Serbian Novak Djokovic. While Andrey Rublev showed the best result by standing in the semi-final stage between the two Russians playing in the tournament, former world number 1 Daniil Medvedev lost all three games in the group stage.
Kura placed Medvedev and Rublev in the “Red” group, which experts immediately called the “group of death”. Russians took third place in the world Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas and Serbian Novak Djokovic, who is eighth in the ATP classification, missed the Grand Slam tournaments in Australia only because he did not want to reveal his vaccination status against coronavirus. and the USA, which lost a lot of rating points.
Medvedev and Rublev faced off on the second day of the last tournament of the year. Daniil was higher in the rankings, the score for the personal meetings was 4-1 in favor, so he was considered the favorite on these grounds. But even in the first set, Rublev showed that layouts are nothing. He was extremely close to taking the lead, but missed the ball in seven sets and allowed Medvedev to take the game. However, this did not affect Andrey’s morale in any way: he confidently won the second set, and then the third set, and the match 6:7 (7:9), 6:3, 7:6 (9: 6) from the fifth match point.7 ).
Probably the battle with Medvedev took Rublev’s strength too much, because in the next match Andrei could not resist Djokovic and lost – 4:6, 1:6. However, the Serbian player was also good in this match – he admitted at the post-match press conference that he had perhaps shown his best tennis all year. Novak defeated Tsitsipas before facing Rublev, thus qualifying for the semi-finals after two matches.
Medvedev played another “valid” match with Tsitsipas. The Russian player lost the first set, heroically played three matchballs in the second set and went ahead with a score of 5:3 in the third set and served for the match. But here it was already the turn of the Greeks’ exploits – she managed to resist and finally won with a score of 6:3, 6:7 (11:13), 7:6 (7:1). “It’s terrible that I failed to apply for a win, especially on such a fast surface,” Daniil later complained, as the sporting intrigue of the last ATP tournament lost his chance. reach the semi-finals.
Yet in the duel with Djokovic, Medvedev had something to fight for. Money and prestige – or rather prestige and money, because the opportunity to fight the great Novak can hardly be measured in numbers. And Daniil did not disappoint in the least because he gave the Serbian a great fight, losing in the third match in a row only in the tie-break of the last match – 3:6, 7:6 (7:5), 6: 7 (2:7 ). “It was a duel with one of my main opponents, I really wanted to win,” Djokovic later admitted.
Medvedev still didn’t win when he served the match in the third set. “This is a disaster,” the Russian admitted. Daniil also acknowledged that he is not yet close to the Serbs in terms of the scale of his tennis achievements. “I’ve won some important games against him, but I’m still a long way from Novak and the other big three.
Medvedev assessed that his season was not entirely successful. “I didn’t have good results overall after the Australian Open. I played well but I expected more from myself. But I’m sure there are many wins ahead of me in the future. Then I’ll rest and start preparing for next season.”
The second semi-finalist of the final ATP championship from the group “Red” became known in the match between Tsitsipas and Rublev. The Russian started the game unsuccessfully, losing the first set with almost no fight, but then took the initiative and took the lead with scores of 3:6, 6:3, 6:2 without letting the Greek look up. “I didn’t give up, I kept fighting. After I gave up on a stupid game with 40:0, I let my feelings come out and then I decided to fight. If you fight and give yourself 100 percent, you win.” I took advantage of them and I am happy to be in the semifinals “, – admitted Rublev.
Meanwhile, events took place in the “Green” group that quickly dispelled the curiosity about who would become the world’s first racket at the end of the year. After Rafael Nadal lost his chance in the semi-finals, Carlos Alcaraz became out of reach for his followers. At the end of the year, the 19-year-old Spaniard, who missed the last ATP tournament, became the world’s youngest first racket in modern tennis history (since 1973). As for the semi-finalists, they were Norwegian Christian Ruud and American Taylor Fritz from the “Green” group. Canadian Nadal and Felix Auger-Aliassime stopped in the group stage.
Rublev had to contend with Ruud to reach the final of the last tournament of the year. But the struggle did not go. The Norwegian won in just 69 minutes with scores of 6:2, 6:4. But 25-year-old Andrei, who for the first time reached the semifinals at the last championship of the year, had nothing to be upset about – in the opinion of many, he has already surpassed the “group of death”. to achieve the impossible. “Of course, I will take away a lot of positive things. Everyone dreams of participating in this tournament, and I achieved that,” Rublev stressed.
In another semi-final, Djokovic beat Fritz 7:6 (7:5), 7:6 (8:6) in a rather stubborn match, unexpected for many who have reached this stage. The Serbian had to win one match to become the six-time champion of the last ATP tournament and catch up with Swiss Roger Federer in this indicator. And he did that by beating Ruud 7:5, 6:3.
Source: Ria
