February acceleration of Daniil Medvedev – Sport – Kommersant

Daniil Medvedev became the winner of the Qatar ExxonMobil Open, the 250 category tournament of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) with a prize fund of $1.4 million. Having beaten in the final in two games the ex-first racket of the world 35-year-old Briton Andy Murray, the Russian won his 2nd title in the last two weeks and 17th in total title. Thanks to this, on Monday he will rise in the ranking from eighth place to seventh.

This final, played by two of the brightest representatives of different generations of the world elite, each of whom won the Grand Slam championships and led the world rankings, was not the only decoration of the Qatar ExxonMobil Open. The fact is that Andy Murray worked wonders all week: he played three match points in the first round match against Italian Lorenzo Sonego and five more in the semi-final against Czech Jiri Legechka. In turn, Daniil Medvedev added bright colors to the Qatari tournament with his semi-final against the ninth racket of the world, Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime, who had three set points in the tie-break of the second game, but in the end was not very accurate and failed to drag his too stubborn opponent into the third set. As a result, Medvedev, who won the title in Rotterdam last Sunday, reached the final stage of the ATP tournament for the second week in a row, which has not happened to him since August 2019.

On Saturday, the Russian was considered the undisputed favorite.

And the point here was not so much in the score of his personal meetings with the Briton (2: 0), but in the physical exertion that Murray had to endure – by the way, the two-time (2008, 2009) champion of the tournament in Doha. In four of his matches, he spent more than ten hours on the court – about twice as much as Medvedev, seeded at number three and entered the fight from the second round. Moreover, the longest match involving Medvedev, lasting 1 hour 59 minutes, ended faster this week than the shortest match involving Murray (2 hours 4 minutes). Of course, one can only admire the character and will of the 35-year-old veteran who underwent hip arthroplasty four years ago, but he could win only if Medvedev himself gave him such a chance. But this did not happen. Most of the key marathon shootouts on the back of the line, which abounded in the final, were left to Medvedev. Murray had only to change tactics and play in the style of serve-out to the net, but such a game also requires freshness in the legs. In addition, the Russian succeeded several times with very beautiful dribble shots – such, for example, as a candle, with which he won the last point.

As a result – 6:4, 6:4 in 1 hour 46 minutes. In each of the games, Murray took someone else’s serve once, but Medvedev managed to do it four times in total. The ninth game of the second installment was decisive, during which the Briton led – 40:0, then making several mistakes. However, according to most statistical indicators, the rivals turned out to be approximately equal. Murray went to the net more often and more successfully, but Medvedev had significantly more actively won points with an equal number of unforced errors – 20 versus 15.

Thus, the Russian, who in previous years, as a rule, did not perform very well in February, won two titles in two weeks for the first time in his career. Thus, Medvedev largely compensated for his failure at the Australian Open, where, having lost in the third round, he clearly lacked rating points.

All this, of course, is reflected in the position in the world classification. On February 13, Medvedev stood there 11th, on February 20 – 8th, and on Monday he will move to 7th place, ahead of the Spaniard Rafael Nadal. Moreover, Medvedev’s return to the top five is possible in another week. True, in order to qualify for this, he needs to reach the final at the 500 category tournament in Dubai, where in the first round he will meet one of the best players in the qualification, and in the semi-final, theoretically, he will go to Novak Djokovic himself.

Evgeny Fedyakov