Daniil Medvedev won his first title of the season and just his third since the 2021 U.S. Open when he defeated Jannik Sinner 5-7, 6-2, 6-2 in the final of the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament on Sunday afternoon.
Medvedev, who had been struggling for the most part since squandering a two-set lead over Rafael Nadal in the 2022 Australian Open final, dropped to No. 12 in the rankings last month after peaking at No. 1. That stay outside the top 10 won’t last long, as the 27-year-old will climb to eighth on Monday.
It wasn’t easy against Sinner, however. Looking for back-to-back titles after triumphing last week in Montpellier, the 21-year-old Italian got off to a fast start. He gave back an early break midway through the first set but recovered it when it mattered most with Medvedev serving at 5-6.
From then on, though, it was all Medvedev. The Russian did not get broken the rest of the way, saving all four of the break points he faced in sets two and three. He converted four of 10 break chances over the same stretch to pull away from Sinner, prevailing after two hours and 29 minutes.
It was an especially sweet result for Medvedev given his recent slump and his past struggles in Rotterdam. The 16-time ATP title winner reached the quarterfinals in 2018 and the semis in 2019 but suffered first-round losses in both 2020 and 2021. He skipped the tournament last season on the heels of his Aussie Open loss to Nadal.
“I first came here in [2018] and I straightaway loved it,” Medvedev told the crowd. “I love coming back here. The last two times I played here were terrible (first-round losses) and I’m happy to make it better this year.”
“Daniil, congrats to you and your team (on) winning your first title of this season,” Sinner said during the trophy ceremony. “I think you’re going to win many more this year, so I wish you all the best…. It has been two positive weeks for me. I played many matches and I’m very proud.”
Sinner is entered in Marseille next week, while Medvedev will take his talents to Doha.
nice one, Med
I saw the match. It was excellent, hard fought and physically demanding. Good to see Meddie back. sinner has lots of room to improve and, with Cahill in his corner, I’m sure he will. He plays a smart, aggressive game.
I watched the Pavs v Vika match and was happy to see Pavs fighting to win, as she has not been in a fighting mood for so long.
Some of my standard one-round picks changed their energy and lost, for example, Ekaterina Alexandrova -actually, she withdrew. Also, Pliskova finally won a first-round match versus Vondrousova. Cristea knocked out Haddad Maia. Hard-working Kudermetova gave up in the decider to Kalinina. It’s exciting and tough on the bracket! 😀
I see Dubai is making many of them play twice today (not sure of the times in
Dubai, but the list is long for players working double-time) Maybe there is a reason for this – bad weather or? It sure will squeeze out the weak. There are other words for what I think of it, but I’ll stop.
Other than all that,
Go Andy Murray!
I use Flashscore.com to see the schedule and follow the matches, and the problem was not that I was seeing double (though my eyes are bad enough); Flashscore had yet to move the Tuesday matches to the right day.
All is as it should be. This Rybakina v Andreescu match I am watching is the last match scheduled today.
Bianca Andreescu appears to be almost back to her best form, but Rybakina broke back and is serving for the match. The best thing to remember is not to skip over Andreescu when we get to Indian Wells. If she could remain injury-free I’d like to see Bianca win a Grand Slam! I love her tennis.
It’s great to see Medvedev is back on track. I picked him to win Doha too.
Indeed, Carlos Alcaraz is just getting started on a long winning streak and will win again in Rio.