Athletistic/Tennis. Russian tennis player Daniil Medvedev reached the final of the Australian Open. The competition takes place in Melbourne.

In the semifinals, Medvedev won a difficult and strong-willed victory over German Alexander Zverev with a score of 5:7, 3:6, 7:6 (7:4), 7:6 (7:5), 6 :3. The athletes spent 4 hours and 22 minutes on the field.

Medvedev had 14 aces, six double faults and 4 converted break points out of 14 won. Zverev served 14 times, double faulted and converted 5 out of 10 break points.

“There were matches where I thought I couldn’t win. But today I said to myself in the third set: ‘I will be proud of myself if I fight until the end.’ I want to try to win the match.’ So I’m proud of myself.

21 hours on the ground? I think the record is how many hours long? I’m in the final, I’ll try to recover and play my best. Tomorrow I will go to training despite the pain. Warm up a little, practice. I’m not sure I’ll wake up at nine in the morning like usual, but we’ll discuss that with the team.

We both didn’t play very well in the first set. I played the second set better, but I had no luck on his serve and he broke twice. I was a little lost, but in the third set I said to myself: if I lose this match, I want to at least be proud of myself, I want to fight until the end. And I was able to win, so I’m very proud of myself. At one point in the third set, I realized that I was physically very tired. But this was not visible to him. I couldn’t really run all those 40 rallies like I did in the first set. So I decided – okay, let’s increase the aggression then. If that doesn’t work, well, I tried.

I tried what I thought might work. And it worked. I have improved a lot in my serve. The tiebreaker was incredible. I had some luck at 5:5 p.m. at the reception. But it’s tennis.

Cut – that’s how it was planned. And a shortcut, with a reverse rotation against the wind – not on purpose. But when I saw the ball flying, I thought: but not into the net. Sometimes you need luck, and today is my day.

I came back from 0:2 twice in sets here? It has never been so difficult. I’m happy about it, because before that I didn’t have very good statistics in five sets. Physically and mentally, playing five sets is very difficult. Often I wasn’t strong enough in the fifth set. A month ago, I wanted to change something, become mentally stronger, not get distracted by people in the stands shouting something at me. But when it seems to me that the judge made a mistake somewhere, I try to concentrate more. I’m still far from perfect, but I’m trying,” Medvedev said after the victory.

“I have played very well throughout the Australian tour. In fact, I have been playing well for months now, so today’s defeat is disappointing. There is nothing more to say.

Did the moment when Medvedev asked to watch the replay bother me and disrupt the rhythm of the match? As far as I remember, it was 6:5 in the fourth set, and I held that match quite easily, so no. In this case, no, it didn’t hurt. I’m even more upset that I couldn’t take my serve at 5:4 in the tiebreak and lost both points. The first of these points, no luck at all. This bothers me more.

When did the match start to change? By the end of the second set, my strength started to run out. It no longer had the same freshness. I’m a little sick, I got sick after the match against Alcaraz. A little fever and all that. Of course, this didn’t benefit the recovery and I played a lot.

So yes, my strength started to run out at the end of the second set, and it’s impossible to play with him if you’re not 100% physically ready. Because it literally gives you nothing. He makes you work on every point, and when you can’t do it anymore, it becomes very difficult. Yes, I was very close in the third and fourth sets, but I was not the same player as in the first two sets. I just held on. I didn’t lose my serves, but if in the first two sets the serve didn’t go better, then it disappeared.

It’s a shame. But what’s more disappointing is that I didn’t feel 100% in physics. It took away my chance. I played pretty well throughout the Australian tour and played some really good tennis.

I lost because of my physical condition, not because of tennis. That’s what’s frustrating. This is probably the first time this has happened to me in my career.

But I can be proud that I did my best. I did all the work in the off season, I did all the work here in Australia. I was focused, but things happened that I can’t control. I hope this is not my last chance,” Zverev said in the post-match press conference.

Medvedev became the fourth player in the Open era to win a semifinal at the Australian Open after losing the first two sets.

Medvedev will have to compete for the title with Italian Jannik Sinner on January 28. Daniil can become the third Russian in history to win the Australian Open.

Previously, two Russians won the Grand Slam in Melbourne: Yevgeny Kafelnikov in 1999 and Marat Safin in 2005. Kafelnikov in his final defeated Swede Thomas Enqvist in four sets – 4:6, 6:0, 6:3, 7: 6 (7:1), and Safin defeated two-time Grand Slam champion and winner of the Australian final tournament Lleyton Hewitt – 1:6, 6:3, 6:4, 6:4.

It should be noted that for the first time since 2005, none of the representatives of the “Big Three” of men’s tennis reached the final of the Australian Open.

Andrey Andreev, Sport.Ru


@sportru