Medvedev defeats Zverev to reach Nitto ATP Finals semi-finals

Daniil Medvedev defeated Alexander Zverev in a battle of former Nitto ATP Finals champions to become the first man to book a place in this year's Turin semi-finals.

The third seed defeated his German opponent 7-6(7), 6-4 on Wednesday night, earning his fifth win in six Lexus ATP HeadToHead meetings between the two this season and improving to 11-7 overall against Zverev.

"It was a very tough match mentally," said Medvedev in his on-court interview.

"I started very well, I was playing well. He was kind of not there yet, but at one moment he stepped up his game and at this moment, for whatever reason, I started playing a little bit worse for a short period of time."

"I’m happy that I managed to regroup and play better at the end of the first set. The end of both sets was very tight... In the tie-break he had set point on his serve. I’m happy because this year I might have lost some matches like this. I’m happy to be able to win."

Medvedev saved two set points in a tense opening-set tie-break and fought off a break point late in set two to defeat the 2018 and 2021 titlist in a match of razor-thin margins.

Medvedev was locked in from the first ball and raced to a 2-0 lead, but Zverev stormed back from the middle of the first set, countering Medvedev's metronomic baseline game with aggressive swings and well-timed net approaches.

The German missed a sitter volley that would have put him 5/1 up in the tie-break before both players made costly errors from 5/5, with Medvedev sailing an overhead long and Zverev fumbling a forehand on his first set point.

The set was decided when the ranging Medvedev lasered a down-the-line forehand that his opponent couldn't handle at the net.

Set two was heading for a second tie-break with both players dominating on serve until Medvedev fought off the set's first break point to hold for 5-4.

He started the next game with an ingenious lob off an overhead swing from beyond the baseline and ended the match soon after, a brilliant backhand pass bringing up match point.

Medvedev's next opponent will be Carlos Alcaraz, who defeated Andrey Rublev 7-5, 6-2 earlier in the day to move to 1-1 in group play.

SportsLigue