Cincinnati Masters 1000: Stefanos Tsitispas won a battle against Daniil Medvedev and will play the final against Borna Coric

the greek Stefanos Tsitsipas and the Croatian Borna Coric will hold this Sunday, at 5:30 p.m. in Argentina and with ESPN 3 television, the final of the Cincinnati Masters 1000which distributes more than 6,000,000 dollars in prizes and is played on quick surface. The tournament is prelude to the US Open, the last Grand Slam championship of the year. Tsitsipas won a battle against Russian Daniil Medvedev, for 7-6 (8-6), 3-6 y 6-3. Coric, meanwhile, defeated the British Cameron Norrie by 6-3 y 6-4.

The rain changed the entire program for the day, which included the men’s and women’s semifinals. Beyond that, Tsitsipas and Medvedev will play a great match: close from start to finish, like most matches between two tennis players of the new generation. In fact, the first set had to end in a tie-break, won by the Greek. The second, on the other hand, showed a much more accurate Medvedev. The Russian appeared in all his dimension to avoid elimination and kept the part. In the final, Tstisipas was more precise and powerful. He thus he surpassed the world number 1.

Although the final greeting between both contenders was correct, there were a couple of borderline edges in the semifinal. Tsitsipas and Medvedev don’t get along. And for a long time: at the opening round of the 2018 Miami Masters 1000, after coldly shaking hands at the net, the now number 1 jumped out of his chair to go look for the Hellenic. The umpire stopped him. “He told me «Russian of m…». Do you think that is normal? ”, Medvedev justified his reaction to the authority. It was almost four years before the invasion of the Ukraine. That fact, of course, did not affect the discussion.

As Daniil dared Stefanos to look him in the eye, the loser put his things in his bag and left, without meeting his eyes. “He is a boy who does not know how to fight”, provoked the Russian, then 52nd in the ranking, to the Greek, at that time 70th.

This Saturday the issue was lighter. But there were a couple of moments when it seemed that the fuse would light. One was the ball to the body that Tsitsipas executed against his opponent in an action that had both near the net, but Medvedev did not complain and the author returned to the back of the court raising his left arm from behind as a sign of apology. The other happened as soon as the Greek got the victory with a winning shot: celebrated with a kind of little dance, in which although he was facing an audience, it led to the interpretation that he was mocking the defeated. In any case, his rival did not object to it.

For his part, Coric had it a little easier than the Greek. He dominated Norrie from start to finish and nobody could deduce that he entered the Cincinnati main draw thanks to having his place in the ranking protected. In fact, the Croatian (he will play the third Masters 1000 match of his career) is the finalist of Cincinnati (contest born in 1973) worst placed in the world ranking in history: he is the 152nd of the planet. According to the ATP site, Coric is also the second finalist in an M-1000 among the worst ranked in all time. He is only surpassed by the Romanian Andrei Pavel, who was 191st when he defined Paris 2003.

“It was a crazy day, but it ended very well. I am very happy with my tennis today. I played extremely well”, said Coric, quoted by the portal. “In the beginning I wasn’t on the court, I didn’t feel the ball very well, but I found my rhythm. I began to serve better, to play much better, and I think that was the key”, evaluated the Croatian, who became number 12. The statistics prove him right: he won 81% of the total points he put into play with your first serve. He can now climb to 29th place.

french tennis player Caroline Garcia, first runner-up of a WTA 1000 tournament since the qualifying stageand the Czech Peter Kvitov They will try this Sunday for their first conquest of Cincinnati. In a semi-final marked by interruptions due to rain, García beat the Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka by 6-2, 4-6 y 6-1in a duel that lasted more than six hours, but with only two of them in play.

The Frenchwoman, 28 years old and 35th in the ranking, overcame two long interruptions due to rain when she was in the lead. Bad weather twice stopped the semifinal, when Garcia was 6-2 and when she led 3-1 in the third set.

The emotion of Garcia, the first classified to reach the final of a WTA 1000

Meanwhile, Kvitova aspires to her thirtieth trophy. In the first semifinal, the Czech beat the American Madison Keys and reached her 12th WTA 1000 tournament final. The Czech, two-time Wimbledon champion and 28th in the world, lost by 8-6 the opening set tie-break, but won by 6-4 the second and for 6-3 the third.

Keys, winner in Cincinnati 2019, came on the rise with her victory over the number 1, the Polish Iga Swiatek, but succumbed to the power of Kvitova’s service in the important moments. ”It was an incredible match. I expected it to be hard, but not that hard”, admitted the Czech, who made sure to return to the top 20 of the WTA.

ATP and AFP agency