Three weeks added to Daniil Medvedev – Sport – Kommersant

The first racket of the world Daniil Medvedev will retain his leadership in the rating of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for at least three more weeks – until the end of the US Open, where he will have to defend last year’s title. This became clear after in the second round of the Western & Southern Open – the ongoing ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Cincinnati with a prize pool of $ 6.3 million – the Spaniard Rafael Nadal, who had theoretical chances to bypass the Russian at the end of this week, was defeated by the Croat Borna Chorich.

The likelihood that Rafael Nadal would replace Daniil Medvedev in first place in the world rankings next Monday before the start of the tournament in Cincinnati was small. For this, as is known, required a combination of two conditions – the victory of the Spaniard in the final and the early, before the quarterfinals, the departure of the Russian. True, few people imagined that Nadal would not even pass his first rival, Croatian Bornu Coric. But the historical prerequisites for a sensation were visible. At least for those who have been closely following Nadal for more than a season, this was well known.

Coric, 25, has never been part of the world’s elite. In the world classification, he did not rise above 12th place, and at the Grand Slam tournaments he never went to the semi-finals. Nevertheless, there are several truly striking episodes in his professional career, and the very first of them is connected precisely with the name of Nadal, who in 2014 was beaten by a very young Croatian at a major tournament in Basel. That victory allowed Coric to enter the top hundred, and the next time he upset the Spaniard two years later, just in Cincinnati. And although Nadal was stronger in their other two meetings, the Croat had reason to count on victory. Even despite the very low, 152nd place in the world ranking, which Coric now occupies due to a right shoulder injury and subsequent surgery, which forced him to miss exactly 12 months since March last year.

The battle on the main court of the tournament lasted 2 hours and 51 minutes. On the tie-break in the first game, Nadal did not use the set ball at 6:5, rushing to hit the rally, and made a double fault on the last point. The outcome of the second set was decided by the only break made by the Spaniard in the seventh game. And in the third installment, Čoric was helped by Nadal’s miss on a break point in the sixth game, which turned out to be the first and last win by a Croatian on someone else’s pitch all evening. At the end of the meeting, he acted accurately and quite aggressively, forcing Nadal to defend himself and winning with a score of 7:6 (10:8), 4:6, 6:3. “Something very, very special has just happened,” said the lucky winner on the court. These emotions were easily explained.

After all, Coric got into the main draw in Cincinnati thanks to the “protected rating” rule, which allows tennis players who missed several months to get game practice in major competitions.

And this is his most striking victory since reaching the quarterfinals of the 2020 US Open. In addition, he became only the third tennis player after Novak Djokovic and Nikolay Davydenko to lead Nadal in a series of meetings, having played with him at least five times.

Nadal, in turn, lost to an opponent outside the top 100 for the first time in five years. The Spaniard, of course, did not play his best match, but tennis in his performance can not be called a failure. The consequences of the abdominal injury that forced Nadal to withdraw from Wimbledon are not noticeable from the outside. He often went to the net, at times made beautiful combinations, ending with sharp blows along the line, and after the early end of the tournament, which he considers “historically difficult” for himself, he will certainly correct some game moments.

As for Daniil Medvedev, who must have felt some relief after Coric’s victory, he is guaranteed to start in first place in the US Open rankings, starting on August 29, and will remain there until at least September 12. Thus, the number of weeks spent by the Russian in the status of the leader of the world classification will increase to 16. According to this indicator, Medvedev will take a clean 17th place (in total, 27 people became the first rackets of the world), beating the American Andy Roddick. Now Mats Wilander is ahead with his 20 weeks, but given that in New York the Russian, the reigning US Open champion, will have to defend 2,000 points earned last year at once, it is too early to talk about chasing the Swede. On Friday evening Moscow time in the third round of the Western & Southern Open Medvedev meets with Canadian Denis Shapovalov.

Evgeny Fedyakov