He won 6-4 and 6-4, ending the Russian’s nine-game winning streak in this competition. It closes 2021 with more titles than anyone else, six, and also with the highest number of victories, 59
Turn had to settle for a malnourished final at the ATP Finals. He took her Alexander Zverev with hardly any opposition to the other side of the net, where hardly any Daniil Medvedev, the man who defends the cup. The German, who won 6-4 and 6-4, in an hour and 15 minutes, comes out like a shot from the first edition of this tournament in the Italian city. One day after leaving behind Novak Djokovic, No. 1 in the world, in the semifinals, he knocked down the second in the ranking, and he did it with an unsuspected authority. Nothing to object to the great tournament and the magnificent season of Zverev, but the truth is that in the final duel he ran into an unrecognizable version of the Russian.
“I had to play one of my best games to beat someone who had beaten me five times in a row,” said the champion at the foot of the court. If any tournament regularly signals change inclinations, it is the ATP Finals. Since in 2016 I won it Andy Murray, they have taken the triumph Grigor Dimitrov (2017), Alexander Zverev (2018), Stefanos Tsitsipas (2019) and Daniil Medvedev (2020). Far are Djokovic’s four consecutive titles, reduced on Saturday night by the Hamburg player. Zverev, hugged with his brother Misha, who is also an essential part of his team, after the meeting, begins to lay the foundations to oppose everything.
Medvedev, a tennis player apparently oblivious to emotions, with a plan that tends to destabilize his rivals is not easy to get out of his lane. The Russian, the first player in history to reach the final with nine consecutive victories in the tournament, the five that led him to the title last year and the four this year, will be sorry to give up the service in the third game, but no one imagined that his ability to fight had reached that point.
Five previous defeats
He found a Zverev still touched by the grace of his semifinal match against Djokovic, determined to break the sequence of five consecutive defeats against him, the most recent in the group stage of this edition. Winner of five titles earlier this season, the Olympic champion does not hesitate. Successful in all the luck of the game, he left his adversary hastily destitute.
Such was the surprise that Medvedev’s weakness generated him that, after breaking his serve again at the start of the second set, he observed him strangely. What was happening? Why was the United States Open champion, the world’s number two, taciturn, overpowered, indolent? Was he suffering from a physical problem?
There was no symptom of complaint or regret. Nor did he request the physiotherapist’s attention. It was pure resignation. Honors for Zverev, the best in the last ATP tournament of the year, the player with the most titles in 2021 and with the most wins, 59, who closed with a ace second take out your pronouncement. At 24, he gives the impression of having acquired the cooking point of his tennis, which suggests even greater conquests in the course to come. “I’m already thinking about next year,” he announced.
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