Daniil Medvedev powers past Stefanos Tsitsipas into Australian Open final | Tennis News – Times of India

MELBOURNE: Russia’s Daniil Medvedev overpowered Stefanos Tsitsipas to make his first Australian Open final Friday, the place he’ll bid to cease world primary Novak Djokovic from clinching an unprecedented ninth title.
The fourth seed proved far too robust for Greece’s Tsitsipas, crushing him 6-4, 6-2, 7-5 in entrance of greater than 7,000 noisy followers at Rod Laver Arena to increase his win streak to twenty.
The 25-12 months-outdated, extremely-assured on the again of his unbeaten run, which incorporates three titles, has been knocking on the door of Grand Slam success for a while, however has but to win a title.
To lastly recover from the road he should on Sunday beat prime seed Djokovic, who has gained all eight finals he has performed at Melbourne Park.

But no one on tour has extra momentum than Medvedev, whose tough recreation has stymied all opponents since November, and he has gained three of his final 4 towards the 17-time Grand Slam-winning Serb.
“It definitely wasn’t easy,” mentioned Medvedev, solely the third Russian after Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Marat Safin to succeed in the Australian Open final.
“I got a little bit scared and tight (in the third set) because it’s a semi-final of a Slam… but happy I was able to turn my game on, especially in some tight moments on my serve.”
Medvedev got here into the showdown boasting a 5-1 edge of their head-to-heads and a frosty relationship stemming from Shanghai in 2019, when the favored Greek blasted his slugfest enjoying fashion as “boring”.
Fifth seed Tsitsipas was backing up from a shocking 5-set upset of 20-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal, but it surely was an vitality-sapping 4-hour epic and he appeared to really feel the consequences.
In entrance of vocal, flag-waving Greek followers, the servers managed the factors as they moved to 2-2 within the opening set earlier than the Russian, anchored to the baseline, drew first blood.
Until then, Tsitsipas had solely confronted eight break factors in the whole event, however Medvedev earned two and transformed on the second when the Greek despatched a return lengthy.
Medvedev, who additionally reached the 2019 US Open final, stayed centered and labored two set factors at 5-4. But Tsitsipas defended each efficiently with deep, aggressive returns as the group lifted their quantity.
He despatched down his first double-fault of the match on his third earlier than blasting an ace and a winner to take a one-set lead.
Medvedev dominated the lengthy rallies, with Tsitsipas needing to battle laborious for each level, and he was damaged once more after a seven-minute marathon recreation when the Russian blasted a scorching forehand down the road for two-1 second-set benefit.
Frustrated, Tsitsipas slammed his water bottle to the bottom on the changeover, with the ballkids pressured to mop up the mess after it burst and sprayed in all places.
Medvedev was commanding on serve and a glum Tsitsipas unravelled, damaged once more, to like, on his subsequent recreation because the Russian raced by means of the set in 36 minutes.
He was damaged once more early within the third set and appeared spent, however roared on by the group he discovered new reserves to interrupt again for 3-3.
For the primary time within the match, Medvedev was underneath strain however held his nerve with a wonderful passing shot giving him one other break for six-5 earlier than he calmly served out to win.