Melbourne, Feb 19 (UNI) Russia's Daniil Medvedev reached the Australian Open final for the first time with a dominant victory against Stefanos Tsitsipas, here on Friday.

The in-form Medvedev won 6-4 6-2 7-5 against Greek fifth seed Tsitsipas, securing his 20th victory in a row.

Aside from a late third-set comeback attempt from Tsitsipas, Medvedev neutralised his opponent’s attacking skills and contested the majority of the two-hour, nine-minute encounter on his terms inside Rod Laver Arena.

The World No 4 landed 46 winners, compared to just 21 unforced errors, and won 88 per cent of his first-serve points (49/56) en route to victory.

'It was definitely not easy, because we saw the match with Rafa was kind of the same score after two sets. [In] the third set, Rafa was dominating but didn’t manage to win the match, so I got a little bit scared and tight," said Medvedev, after the win.

"It is the semi-final of a Slam… It was not easy, but I am happy I managed to switch my game on, especially in some tight moments on my serve and I am really happy to be in the final,' he added.

Across his 20-match winning streak, Medvedev has defeated 12 Top 10 players. The Russian’s most recent loss against a Top 10 opponent came at last year’s US Open, when he fell to eventual champion Dominic Thiem in the semi-finals.

Alongside Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Andy Murray and Juan Martin del Potro, Medvedev is the sixth active player to record a 20-match tour-level winning streak.

Medvedev will contest his second major final when he meets Novak Djokovic on Sunday.

The 25-year-old owns a 3-4 ATP Head2Head record against the World No 1, which includes a 6-3, 6-3 victory in their most recent encounter at last year’s Nitto ATP Finals.

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