Third-seeded Russian Daniil Medvedev punched his ticket to the semifinals of the Nitto ATP Finals by cruising to a 7-6 (7), 6-4 sweep of No. 7 seed Alexander Zverev of Germany on Wednesday in Turin, Italy.
Medvedev sits atop the Red Group at 2-0 and has yet to drop a set in Turin. He is the first player to earn a spot in the semis from either group.
“It was a very tough match mentally,” Medvedev said. “I started very well, I was playing well. He was kind of not there yet, but at one moment he stepped up his game and at this moment, for whatever reason, I started playing a little bit worse for a short period of time.”
Things got a bit dicey in the first set for Medvedev, who fell behind 5-4 and 6-5 before forcing the tiebreaker, which was also competitive. Zverev jumped out to a 4-1 lead and later had set point at 7-6, but Medvedev secured the final three points to take the early advantage.
“I’m happy that I managed to regroup and play better at the end of the first set. The end of both sets was very tight,” Medvedev said. “In the tiebreak he had set point on his serve. I’m happy because this year I might have lost some matches like this. I’m happy to be able to win.”
Zverev had nine aces and 26 winners for the match, but that wasn’t enough to get the best of Medvedev, who saved three of four break points and converted both of his break-point attempts.
In Wednesday’s other Red Group match, No. 2 seed Carlos Alcaraz blanked Russian fifth seed Andrey Rublev 7-5, 6-2.
Alcaraz broke a three-match skid to improve to 1-1 in round-robin action, while Rublev fell to 0-2.
“It was a totally different match and level from me. This is the level I have to play if I want to give myself a chance in this amazing tournament,” Alcaraz said. “(Tuesday) was a good day for me in practice to find the level I needed to show (Wednesday) and I think I did pretty well. I am very happy with my level.”
Alcaraz won a whopping 32 of 34 first-service points while posting 19 winners against two unforced errors. Rublev finished with 14 winners and seven unforced errors in the loss and has dropped all four of his sets at the ATP Finals.
–Field Level Media
