The Crusher of American Giants – Sport – Kommersant

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The next tournament of the Association of Professional Tennis Players (ATP) in the Masters 1000 category, held in Toronto by the National Bank Open Presented by Rogers with a prize fund of $ 2.85 million, ended with the victory of the second racket of the world, Daniil Medvedev. Having beaten American Reilly Opelka in the final in two games, the Russian won his third title this year and twelfth in his career.

On the eve of this final, many noticed that in the previous match against John Isner, a player with the same powerful serve as Reilly Opelka, Daniil Medvedev used new tactics. Usually, at a reception, he moves very far, almost to the billboards, but here he stood, even if not next to the back line, but at least half a meter closer to it.

According to the Russian himself, the serve of opponents, whose height exceeds two meters, cannot be taken too far, since the ball bounces along a very high trajectory, and this is not always convenient. “So I tried to move a little closer than I was used to, and it worked out pretty well. I’m not sure it will be the same tomorrow, but at least I got a good practice, ”Medvedev explained on Saturday.

Opelka, after a difficult meeting with Stefanos Tsitsipas, found it difficult to come up with something original. Assessing his chances, he probably understood that it was very difficult to defeat the second in a row the representative of the top five in the world rankings. Compared to the Greek, the Russian has a more skillful execution of dodging strikes, which Tsitsipas did not always manage to use in the semifinals, when Opelka repeatedly ran to the net from the second serve. And on the back line, Medvedev now looks much more stable than Tsitsipas.

The bearded giant Opelka puffed like a steam locomotive and in some protracted rallies looked very decent against the Russian, trying to seize the moment for his crown flat forehand. But mostly, of course, he was counting on his first serve. However, in the first set, it took place only in two cases out of three, and Medvedev dealt with the second serve much easier. For the whole game, perhaps, there was only one moment when it became really alarming for the Russian – in the fourth game, after two consecutive double errors on his serve, it was 0:40. But Opelka could not get any dividends from this favorable situation.

Apparently, this episode still made too deep an impression on him – in any case, in the next game Medvedev made his only break for the game. And in the second set he managed it twice – in the third and ninth games, even though Opelka raised the percentage of hits on the first serve. The semi-final workout clearly helped.

In the ending, the 211 cm tall American giant looked demoralized. As a result – 6: 4, 6: 3 in just 85 minutes. Medvedev won his third this season, his fourth in the Masters 1000 category and his twelfth career ATP title, moving a little closer to the world’s No. 1 Novak Djokovic in rankings. Already on Tuesday or Wednesday, the Russian will start at a similarly important competition in Cincinnati, where in the second round his rival will be one of the two American wild card holders – Brandon Nakashima or Mackenzie MacDonald.

Evgeny Fedyakov

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