Sports
Russian Daniil Medvedev outclassed German Alexander Zverev 5-7 6-4 6-1 in the Paris final on Sunday to claim his third Master’s title.
The third seed, who also defeated Zverev in the Shanghai final last year, returned strongly throughout the match to take his first title of the year.
Medvedev, 24, had more energy in the deciding set and made the most of his opportunities against an inconsistent Zverev, who had won five of their six previous meetings.
A double-fault gave the Russian his eighth career ATP title after two hours and seven minutes.
Both players had a high first serve percentage early on, holding comfortably, until Zverev went 40-0 up on the Russian’s serve at 6-5 to earn the match’s first break-points.
Medvedev saved the first two by dictating the rallies, but he whacked a forehand long on the third and conceded his second set of the tournament.
Zverev faced his first break-points in a fiercely-contested third game in the second set, which he won.
But he dropped serve in the ninth game when he sent a crosscourt backhand long.
Medvedev won his service game to love to level the match and send it into a decider.
He broke to love, held serve after saving four break-points and broke again thanks to a booming service return as he moved 4-0 up.
Zverev’s confidence was gone and the fourth seed never looked capable of mounting a comeback as Medvedev added to his 2019 Shanghai and Cincinnati Masters titles.
Both players will take part in the season-ending ATP Tour Finals at the O2 in London from Nov. 15 to Nov. 22.
Medvedev, the fourth Russian player to win at Bercy after three-times champion Marat Safin, Nikolay Davydenko and Karen Khachanov, said he would go into the tournament full of confidence.
“I’m coming in better shape than last year. Last year I was real exhausted, I had lost in the first round in Paris. That’s when you lose your confidence. When you lose first round you always lose your confidence,” he said. (Reuters/NAN)
– Nov. 9, 2020 @ 9:15 GMT |
Tags: Medvedev wears down Zverev to claim third Masters Title
