Athletistic/Tennis. Daniil Medvedev in Los Cabos finally broke the losing streak in the finals and won the first title of the season. In the tournament final in Mexico, the Russian grabbed the ‘steering wheel’ from last year’s winner, Cameron Norrie.

During the first week of August, a unique situation developed in the men’s round – the grids of both tournaments were led by Russian tennis players Daniil Medvedev and Andrei Rublev. The first racket in the world Medvedev became the top seed at the ATP-250 tournament in Los Cabos, and the eighth number in the Rublev ranking was at the ATP-500 competition in Washington. Andrei confidently passed the grid from the American capital to the semi-finals without dropping a set, beating tennis players such as Britain’s Jack Draper and Americans Maxim Cressy and Jeffrey-John Wolfe. In the match to reach the final, Rublev’s opponent was the Japanese Yoshihito Nishioka, the 96th racket in the world, who in the third round forced Karen Khachanov (the seventh seed) to cover the racket. Additionally, Nishioka beat American Jenson Brooksby, Australian Alex de Minor (11) and Britain’s Daniel Evans (16). The Japanese did not stop there and in two sets faced Rublev – 6:3, 6:4. By the way, this is only the 26-year-old Yoshihito’s third career victory over a top-10 player. In the final match, Nishioka will face Wimbledon runner-up Nick Kiryos.

As for Medvedev, Los Cabos was his first tournament after a month and a half break. And Daniil crossed the grid with confidence until the very final, beating the Australian Rinki Hidzikata, the Lithuanian Richardas Berankis and the Serb Miomir Kecmanovic (4). The most difficult on the way to the decisive match was the duel with Kecmanovic, in which the Russian in the first set won in a tie-break – 7:6, 6:1. By the way, thanks to this result, Medvedev secured his leadership in the rankings at least until the end of the Masters in Cincinnati, that is, until August 22.

After beating Ketsmanovich, the Russian shared his opinion on the last match: “It was a very difficult match. It started well, the whole first set was at the highest level. To lose the advantage. The tie-break was great too. I’m not one of those people who often asks the crowd to cheer me on, but I won an incredible point (at the start of the tie-break) so I thought to myself: “This moment was very well, let’s try to highlight it.”

In the deciding match, Daniel’s opponent was Briton Cameron Norrie. Previously, tennis players met only once – at the 2019 Shanghai Masters, Medvedev confidently won – 6:3, 6:1. It should be added here that Norrie is last year’s champion of this tournament, and the title in Los Cabos was his first of his career. Since then, the Briton has made huge strides – winning the Masters in Indian Wells and even making his ATP Finals debut.

The starting set turned out to be stubborn. Daniil was the first to break – 3:2, but the opponent immediately bounced back – 3:3. The Russian showed perseverance, again got an advantage, but when submitting the game with the score 5: 4, he missed a double set point and allowed the opponent to equalize the situation – 5:5. In the very first draw of the following match, the Russian was slightly injured – an abrasion on his arm. Immediately a doctor came to court, who treated the injury. And that break in play seems to have helped Daniil gather his strength and confidently lead the game to victory – 7:5 in 55 minutes. The Russian managed to keep this attitude until the very end – he went game after game and managed to catch Norrie’s attacking “steering wheel” – 7:5, 6:0 in 1 hour and 21 minutes.

Daniil Medvedev has therefore won the first title of the 2022 season and the 14th of his career. Recall that the Russian has not won in the decisive match for almost a year – since his triumph at the US Open – 2021. He missed victories in Paris, at the Final ATP Tournament in Turin – 2021, at the ‘Australian Open, in ‘s-Hertogenbosch and Halle-2022. It is curious that this is Medvedev’s first trophy with the status of 1st racket in the world.

Here’s how foreign tennis fans reacted to Medvedev’s game:

@kr9ptonlul:

– Considering what Medvedev had to go through in the last six months, I think this title was a huge relief for him. I hope this is just the start of a great second half of the season in Maddie’s performance.

@gcruz154:

– Maddie’s car is back on the courts! Brilliant finish. The second set was particularly great.

@srihariravi12:

– 2022 is a very difficult year for Daniil, but now he has reached his condition on time, because very soon his favorite US Open will be held.

@Gaboazul6s:

– Maddy won the tournament, especially without forcing, almost on foot. It was very powerful, my applause!

@Mary_Skysky:

– The king of hard is back with us! Let’s see what happens next.

@eashhanghosh:

– For the past few months Medvedev has not been able to train and play at full strength, in fact we have now seen a level below which he cannot fall. And soon we will see how high its ceiling is.

@trustverify:

Maddie is in great shape. The final was very easy for him.

@josemorgado:

– Perhaps this is the start of another Medvedev campaign for all the titles in the difficult tournaments where he will play.

@Alexmi90027556:

– Medvedev looked just perfect at this tournament. If he doesn’t have a new injury or other issues, he will play the US Open in September.

@87vintage:

– Finally, Medvedev’s enemies won’t have a miserable argument that he shouldn’t be the world’s number one racketeer, because he hasn’t won any tournaments this year.