Melbourne, (UNI) World No.3 Daniil Medvedev pulled off a victory against World No.6 Alexander Zverev after losing the first two sets in an enthralling Australian Open semifinal match here on Friday.
The encounter was even more exciting as the relations between them have not been the best Zverev once even called Medvedev the most dishonest player in the ATP for his numerous antics on the court.
However, the German admitted that he got carried away and did not have any serious problems with Medvedev. The rivals met 18 times, and Medvedev won in 11 meetings, and last year the Russian won five of six matches.
As the match unfolded, Jannik Sinner might have been hoping that the second semifinal would spend much time on the court before he takes one of them in the finals on Sunday.
In the opening set, Medvedev and Zverev held their serves, but the Russian lost focus and lost three games in a row, but with the score at 1-4, he restored parity and then Medvedev failed to take advantage of his chances on the German’s serve and eventually lost 5-7.
In the second game, Medvedev was again slightly down and, as a result, with the score 2-3, he gave up his serve. In the end, he gave away another one, resulting in a score of 3-6.
At that moment, it seemed Medvedev looked jaded, but sought a break, and after returning, he started to make fewer mistakes. The Russian had a chance on Zverev’s serve in the end, but he managed to get back. And in the tiebreaker, Medvedev led from start to finish 7-6 (7-4).
And the fourth set ended in a tiebreaker. At one point, after a double error by Medvedev, Zverev had a chance to score a winning point, but the Russian won points on two serves from the German and ended the set with an ace 7-6 (7-5).
The outcome of the match was decided in the final set. With the score at 2-2, the Russian earned two break points, and Zverev fought them back, but the third one turned out to be fatal for the German representative 2-3.
Zverev began to make mistakes in simple situations quite often which helped Medvedev. In the end, with the score 5-3, Medvedev earned the first match point on Zverev’s serve and achieved victory.
On Sunday, the Russian will play against Sinner in the final. This final will be Medvedev’s third at the Australian Open.
