Daniil Medvedev noted paternity – Newspaper Kommersant No. 202 (7403) dated 10/31/2022

Daniil Medvedev won the Erste Bank Open, which ended in Vienna in the 500 category tournament of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) with a prize fund of €2.4 million, after defeating Canadian Denis Shapovalov in three sets. The second title this year and the fifteenth in his career was not the only achievement that the Russian achieved in Austria. He also returned to third place in the world rankings, and for the fourth time in a row secured a ticket to the Nitto ATP Finals – the final tournament, which begins in Turin in a week.

How good Daniil Medvedev was on the way to the finals of the Vienna “500” can be judged by such a statistical calculation. In four matches, he allowed his opponents to earn only one break point, which he won back in the second round meeting with Dominic Thiem. At the same time, it should be borne in mind that Medvedev’s rivals in Vienna were entirely tennis players with names. For example, in the quarterfinals he was opposed by the stubborn Italian Yannick Sinner, and in the semifinals by the most experienced Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, the champion of the final tournament in 2017, who, however, has not yet won a single title. By the way, the victory over Dimitrov guaranteed the Russian a ticket to the Nitto ATP Finals. According to preliminary estimates of the press service of the Asia-Pacific Region, Medvedev needed to win the Erste Bank Open for this, but then the final was enough.

Daniil Medvedev, of course, was considered the favorite of the final, and unconditional.

It seemed that in Denis Shapovalov’s arsenal there were no strikes that could systematically break through the incredibly viscous defense, which remains the strongest side of Medvedev’s game. However, in the first set it turned out that this was not the case. Demonstrating his trademark and very spectacular tennis all over the court, breaking the Russian’s rhythm with regular short cuts and going to the net, the Canadian left-hander managed to make not even one, but two breaks – in the third and fifth games. Medvedev managed to win back one of them, but the end of the game was left to Shapovalov.

Only in the course of the second set it became clear that the closer the hypothetical success, the more difficult it is for the Canadian to keep his sights. Trying to suppress the Russian with his aggressiveness at the peak of emotional stress, he increased the marriage rate, while Medvedev, on the contrary, lowered it. Already losing in the third installment with almost no options, Shapovalov made the final push, managing to save six match points. Moreover, in 2 hours and 16 minutes of the game, he won a noticeably greater number of points with blows right through – 41 against 23. But in the end, the victory went to Medvedev, who, due to the constancy of his tactics and greater confidence, managed to break the opponent’s resistance – 4:6, 6: 3:6:2. At the awards ceremony, the newly-champion of Erste Bank Open not only paid tribute to Shapovalov and praised the organizers, but also thanked his wife Daria, who recently gave him a daughter. Moreover, he uttered the last phrases of his emotional speech in Russian.

Having won the second title this year and the fifteenth in his career, Medvedev, among other things, improved his position in the ATP rankings.

He returned to third place there, ahead of the Norwegian Kasper Ruud, who, after reaching the final of the US Open, performs extremely unsuccessfully.

As for the last two tickets to the Nitto ATP Finals, before the Paris Rolex Masters, the final tournament of the ATP calendar season, the number of applicants for them was reduced to four people. Moreover, the favorite in their dispute was the Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime, who in the final of the 500 category tournament in Basel in two games coped with the Dane Holger Rune and, demonstrating phenomenal results for himself in October, won the third title in a row. Auger-Aliassime now has 3635 points since January. This is more than that of Andrei Rublev – 3450, the American Taylor Fritz – 2920 and the Pole Hubert Hurkach – 2870. However, the position of the Russian, which has become somewhat more complicated, cannot yet be called critical. To get ahead of him, Fritz and Hurkacz now need to reach the final, and if Rublev wins at least one match in Paris, they will need to take the title. Given the very strong line-up of this year’s final Masters 1000, this scenario is unlikely, especially since all three plus Auger-Aliassime are in the top half of the bracket. By the way, Medvedev also got there.

Evgeny Fedyakov