Jannik Sinner beat Daniil Medvedev in the final of the tournament in Vienna

The champion of the Erste Bank Open, a tournament of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) category 500 with a prize fund of €2.4 million, which ended in Vienna, was the Italian Jannik Sinner, who broke the resistance of Daniil Medvedev in three sets that lasted more than three hours. Thus, the Russian failed to defend his last year’s title. Sinner won his third tournament this season and secured fourth place in the world rankings.

Before the final against Jannik Sinner, even not the most advanced tennis fans were aware that Daniil Medvedev won all 20 of his titles at different tournaments in different cities. This statistical fact, unique for the Asia-Pacific region, has been known for several months. But not everyone managed to find out about the Russian’s personal record of 64 matches won in one season, set in Saturday’s semi-final against the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas. In order to improve this figure and at the same time defend the title for the first time, Medvedev needed to surpass an opponent, albeit not as famous as himself, but extremely dangerous. After all, four weeks ago in Beijing, in the final of another 500 category competition, Sinner for the first time, after six consecutive defeats from the Russian, surpassed him in two tiebreaks.

The progress that the 22-year-old Italian has made this year once again demonstrates how important it is sometimes for a young talented player to change mentors in time. Sinner’s prospects have been talked about for several seasons now, and he has, of course, not even come close to justifying all the advances made to him. However, last year’s transition from the Italian Riccardo Piatti, a very famous coach who did a lot for Sinner, but did not have long-term experience with big champions, under the wing of the Australian Darren Cahill, clearly gave his career a new impetus.

An elite specialist who in 2003 helped the legendary American Andre Agassi return to the top of the ATP rankings, and in 2017 made the Romanian Simona Halep, who was not distinguished by outstanding physical characteristics, number one in the world, deeply understands tennis and is an excellent motivator. The fact that under his leadership the new ward was seriously improving did not become noticeable immediately: after all, Sinner’s level of skill was already quite high. However, the decisive match in Vienna now concretely confirmed the feeling born in Beijing. In addition to total aggression, based on a high-quality serve and expressed in powerful rebound shots from almost anywhere on the court, the Italian’s game also showed the iron grip that distinguishes real champions. The finals against Medvedev, by and large, turned out to be absolutely equal and could well have ended differently. But Sinner still reserved the decisive points for himself. This allowed him to ultimately overcome the Russian, who was only just a little short both times.

In this case, there were several key points. In the 12th game of the first set, Sinner, having gathered his strength, returned a set point with his first serve, after which he took the tiebreak, during which he was losing 1:4, and with the score 6:7, on the second set point from Medvedev, he made an ace. The Italian’s loss of concentration in the middle of the second game was natural and was explained by the highest level of psychological stress in many amazingly beautiful exchanges of blows. But the relaxation did not last long. Trailing by two breaks, Sinner fought back to show he was back in the game. And in the stunning third game of the decisive set, which lasted almost 20 minutes, he clung to Medvedev’s serve and finally scraped it out on the ninth break point.

The Russian, however, immediately returned the break. But then, limping due to muscle spasms, he lost his serve again. The ending did not allow the audience to relax. Losing 2:5, Medvedev won back a match point on his serve, and in the ninth game Sinner had 15:40. And yet, after 3 hours and 4 minutes of exhausting battle, the victory with a score of 7:6 (9:7), 4:6, 6:3 remained with the Italian, who won his tenth ATP title.

This allowed him to repeat the Italian record, which had previously been solely held by Adriano Pannatta, a star of the 1970s, and secure fourth place in the ATP rankings. It is difficult to say to what extent, after such an intense tennis grinder, Sinner will have time to regain his strength in time for the Rolex Paris Masters tournament, which starts on Monday in Paris. But the fact that in another week the debutant of the final tournament in Turin, with the support of his fans, could easily turn into one of its favorites is already obvious.

Evgeniy Fedyakov