Daniil Medvedev reached the Australian Open final

Daniil Medvedev reached the final of the Australian Open for the third time in the last four years (2021, 2022, 2024). Having defeated Germany’s Alexander Zverev in 4 hours 18 minutes, he won his third five-set match in a single Grand Slam tournament for the first time and will now face Italy’s Jannik Sinner, who has confidently proven his dominance over ten-time Melbourne Major winner Serbian Novak Djokovic in four games.

The culmination of the excellent semi-final, in which Daniil Medvedev and Alexander Zverev sorted things out in Melbourne on Friday evening, was, of course, the ending of the fourth game. By that time, the German tennis player had won the first and second sets, lost the tiebreaker of the third and, no matter how hard he tried, could not bring the matter to at least the first match point.

The last third of the second consecutive tiebreaker in this match not only turned out to be characteristic of Medvedev in many ways, but also predetermined the fate of the entire match. To begin with, with the score 4:4, the Russian made a double fault and found himself two points away from defeat. By the way, he scored six doubles that evening, and in terms of their total number (43), he is the leader of the tournament by a huge margin.

Having led 5:4, Zverev could have ended the match with two plays on his serve, but instead he lost almost everything with them, and without making a single obvious mistake.

First, the Russian, going on a counterattack, completed a shootout of ten blows in his favor with a blow from the right, and then managed to create a real trick. Zverev again executed a good first serve, the speed of which this time was 196 km/h, and Medvedev, having no other option, performed the reception with a forehand, and not a twisted one, but a sliced ​​one. Actually, it wasn’t even a blow. The Russian simply successfully placed his racket, and the ball, spinning cleverly and barely flying over the net, fell onto the opponent’s half of the court, barely bouncing off it. Zverev had no chance to run to the ball and respond, and half a minute later there was an impeccable ace from Medvedev. Just like that, with literally two successful touches, he managed to retain the game and send the German tennis player into a psychological knockdown, from which he was unable to recover. As a result – 5:7, 3:6, 7:6 (7:4), 7:6 (7:5), 6:3 in 4 hours 18 minutes.

However, the entire current Australian Open has become just as special as that phenomenal reception for Medvedev. This tournament demonstrated that, at 27 years old, one of the most consistent representatives of the world elite continues to improve. Medvedev does not show off at all, repeating at press conferences that this year he has decided to largely change his attitude towards what is happening around the court and is trying not to be distracted by the provocations of fans and possible mistakes of the judges. This is in fact a completely conscious line of behavior that helps the third racket of the world to remain calm at critical moments.

And, of course, there is obvious progress that Medvedev has made in terms of endurance.

Yes, his tennis in Melbourne is far from perfect. But in order to win three five-set matches in two weeks, losing 0:2 in sets in two of them, you need a gigantic margin of safety. Perhaps it was precisely this reserve that in this case was not enough for Zverev, who also suffered painfully on the way to the semifinals, won twice in the fifth games in super tiebreaks, and on Friday, in the last game of the first set, within a few minutes, together with Medvedev, he gave two crazy shootouts of 40 and 51 strikes. True, to complete the picture, it should also be noted that at the press conference Zverev spoke about his poor health. After defeating Carlos Alcaraz in the quarterfinals, he developed a fever, and midway through the semifinals he no longer had much strength left.

However, no matter how good this meeting was, the biggest resonance at the tournament on Friday was caused by another semi-final – between Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic. To appreciate its significance, it is enough to remember that the previous time the Serb suffered defeat in Melbourne was 2195 days ago, in January 2018, when he was beaten in the fourth round by the little-known Korean Jeong Hyun. Since then, Djokovic has won four titles and 33 matches there, but a real misunderstanding happened against Sinner. “Today’s level shocked me,” the Serbian tennis player admitted, and he had reason to be surprised.

It cannot be said that before the start of the match Djokovic looked like a clear favorite.

Sinner’s victory could not be ruled out, but the superiority that he had in almost all components looked simply stunning.

It is not serious yet to talk about the end of the Djokovic era. In recent years, he has already lost very important matches to Daniil Medvedev and Carlos Alcaraz, so perhaps now it’s simply Jannik Sinner’s turn to hit his stride. In the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) rankings at the end of this tournament, Djokovic will be 600 points ahead of Alcaraz, and that’s not that much. However, the position at the top of the world rankings can only be assessed more objectively based on the results of the final between Sinner and Medvedev. If he wins, the Russian will become number two in the world, otherwise the Italian will become third, moving the Russian to fourth place and turning into a real contender for leadership.

In a situation where Sinner spent just under 15 hours on the Melbourne courts in the previous six matches, and Medvedev 20 and a half, the balance of power before the final looks obvious. A very high price was paid for the feats that the Russian regularly performed during the tournament against the backdrop of constant lack of sleep due to the late completion of most matches. Therefore, Medvedev can achieve success only if he himself acts flawlessly from the very beginning of the match, avoiding failed periods, and the opponent, in his first decisive match at the majors, feels a heavy load of psychological pressure. Otherwise, Sinner, whose tight, aggressive tennis is now close to ideal, will inevitably take control of the matter, and then Medvedev will have a very difficult time.

Evgeniy Fedyakov