This is how earthly glory comes – Kommersant

Russian Daniil Medvedev became the champion of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, which ended in Rome in the Masters 1000 tournament of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) with a prize fund of €7.7 million, having outplayed world No. 7 Dane Holger Rune in the final in two games. With his first clay title and a top-three favorite at the French Open next Sunday, Medvedev has brought his total ATP wins to twenty, all in different cities. In addition, on Monday he will rise in the world rankings to second place, the highest for himself since August last year.

This final began with an hour and a half delay due to bad weather, which has been bullying the participants of the Roman tournament all week. For example, Daniil Medvedev’s Saturday semi-final against a very principled opponent for him, the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, was interrupted due to rain twice and ended several hours later than planned. Thus, the Russian had much less time to rest than the Dane Holger Rune, who, in turn, defeated last year’s Roland Garros finalist Kasper Ruud of Norway in three sets on Saturday.

The transformation of Daniil Medvedev on the ground is one of the main surprises of recent months in world tennis. Although, of course, there are analogues, and the first thing that comes to mind is the example of Maria Sharapova, who in the first half of her professional career did not look her best on this surface, to put it mildly, and then won Roland Garros twice. The reasons for such metamorphoses primarily lie in the field of psychology, although one desire is not enough to achieve serious results on an uncomfortable cover. You also need to adapt your tactics and movement around the court to it, which Medvedev has now finally succeeded in.

Before the start of the game, 20-year-old Rune was considered the favorite, albeit not an obvious one. This spring, he reached the final in Monte Carlo, where, by the way, he outplayed Medvedev in the quarterfinals, and in the final he almost defeated Andrey Rublev, won the title in Munich, and in Rome before Ruud he also outplayed last year’s champion Novak Djokovic, who, after an injury elbow is gaining shape before our eyes. It seemed that the youngest player in the top ten of the world rankings, who had already managed to earn a reputation as a brawler, had a good chance against Medvedev. However, he arranged for his not so experienced opponent a real master class of men’s wrestling, demonstrating, by the way, just like in the game with Tsitsipas, a truly unbending character.

The outcome of the first game was decided by two games – the fifth, during which Medvedev managed to win back on his serve from 15:40, and the last, when at a break point he managed to answer a shortened shot by Rune and hit the ball into the other half of the court. According to statistics, this year the Russian won all 32 matches in which he took the first set, but in this case the situation was not obvious. The swing started in the second game. The Dane twice, in the first and seventh games, took Medvedev’s serve, but he bounced back both times. The climax came at the very end. With the score 5:5, Rune earned a set point with an excellent “short cut”, which the Russian saved with an ace in the center. And then the Dane could not stand the stress of the moment, failing the last game. As a result – 7:5, 7:5. In the 1 hour and 42 minutes that the final lasted, Medvedev used the first serve much more effectively, winning noticeably more points on it (76% versus 52% for Rune). And he was rewarded with 1,000 rating points, more than €1.1 million in prize money and the most prestigious title – the first on clay (except for the victory won in 2014 in Tbilisi at a small professional tournament with a prize fund of $10,000), the fifth this season , sixth in the Masters 1000 tournaments and twentieth in his career. Moreover, Medvedev continues to improve his unique record, winning tournaments only in different cities.

However, the consequence of his Roman triumph will not only be these static changes. First, in the world ranking Medvedev will rise from third place to second, the highest for himself since August last year, when he was first. Secondly, in the ATP Race – classification by points scored this year, he will lead from Monday with 4300 points, ahead of the Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz by 845 points. Thirdly, it is obvious that in the absence of the 14-time Roland Garros champion Rafael Nadal, who will miss the Paris Major starting next Sunday due to injury, Medvedev, along with Alcaraz and Djokovic, will enter the top three of his main favorites. Moreover, in Paris, unlike the same Rome, he already reached the quarterfinals two years ago.

Evgeny Fedyakov