Quarter-final minimum wage – Newspaper Kommersant No. 148 (7349) dated 08/16/2022

The Western & Southern Open has started in Cincinnati, a Masters 1000 tournament of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) with a prize fund of $6.3 million, which is of great importance for the first racket of the world Daniil Medvedev. At stake is the further stay of the Russian at the highest level of the rating, where he can be replaced by the Spaniard Rafael Nadal. To protect himself from the famous competitor, Medvedev needs to reach the quarterfinals, that is, win two matches.

losing Daniil Medvedev to Australian Nick Kyrios at the start of the Masters 1000 tournament in Montreal could not but affect his prospects for retaining first place in the world classification in the coming weeks. After all, out of 1000 points received last year for winning a similar competition in Toronto, he defended only ten. The result was a kind of record.

On Monday, Medvedev emerged as the first ATP leader with less than 7,000 points since the current distribution system was introduced in 2009.

Of course, this contributed greatly solution organizers of Wimbledon, who imposed a ban on the participation of Russians and Belarusians. However, Medvedev’s results, even taking into account recent victory in a small match in Los Cabos, Mexico, it still leaves a lot to be desired. Suffice it to say that in the ATP Race – a classification that takes into account points scored this season – he is still only fifth. There, Medvedev scored 2835 points, almost two times less than its leader Rafael Nadal. The living Spanish tennis legend, who has won four tournaments since January, including the Australian Open and Roland Garros, does not need to defend a single point before the end of the year. Therefore, the fact that it is Nadal who is currently the most dangerous pursuer of the Russian in the main, 52-week ATP rating, is absolutely natural.

So far, however, far from everything depends on Nadal. Before the start in Cincinnati, he has 1265 points less than Medvedev, who, in order to retain the title of the first racket of the world for the next three weeks, until September 12, needs to reach the quarterfinals or win two matches. And the first to prevent the Russians will try the Dutchman Botik van de Zandshulp, who beat the American Maxim Cressy. This opponent is well known to Medvedev. Over the past 12 months, they have met twice – at the US and Australian Opens, and van de Zandshulpu managed take only one set out of seven. In a situation where increased responsibility will put pressure on Medvedev in Cincinnati, the Dutchman with his powerful serve and sharp shots all over the court can be quite dangerous. But in terms of the level of play, he, of course, is not a Wimbledon Kirios finalist. Botik van de Zandshulp’s tennis is much more predictable, and Medvedev’s hypothetical defeat in this case will be a major sensation, which can have only one reason – psychology.

But even if the Dutchman organizes such a surprise, Medvedev will not necessarily say goodbye to the first place. For that to happen, Nadal in Cincinnati needs to take the title.

Now you can name several reasons at once that should prevent the triumph of the veteran. These include the relatively fast courts laid down in Cincinnati, the lack of match practice after a Wimbledon abdominal injury, and some very strong potential opponents, including Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime, Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz and Norwegian Kasper Ruud. In addition, Nadal has not played in Cincinnati since 2017 for various reasons. Therefore, he has not so many chances to get around Medvedev now. Much more, apparently, there will be at the US Open, but there are still two weeks before it starts.

If we talk about the current ATP rating, then it is worth noting one interesting point. Having won a $53,000 Challenger tournament in Chicago, Roman Safiullin, champion of the 2015 Junior Australian Open and last year’s ATP Cup winner with the Russian national team, moved up to the highest of his career, 97th place on Monday. The 25-year-old tennis player from Podolsk became the fifth tennis player from Russia in the top hundred. It has not had such a representation there since the spring of 2018. But 23-year-old Pavel Kotov is also on the way. On Sunday, he excelled at another Challenger – in San Marino, where €68,000 was up for grabs – and is now 115th in the ranking.

Evgeny Fedyakov