Very interesting and untypical matches (due to different reasons) between the best players in the world and youngsters who’re dreaming about overthrowing them. In each of those matches the same number of games (27), but the hard court match lasted 70 minutes shorter than the clay-courter.
Points won by each set: [ 36-33, 13-28, 38-32 ]
Points won directly on serve:
12 % Tsitsipas – 11 of 86
13 % Nadal – 13 of 94
Tsitsipas [9] surprised Nadal [2] with very offensive attitude, he also dealt exceptionally well with heavy top-spins, but what makes this match quite unusual is the total point difference – it’s a rarity that with such a scoreline the eventual winner loses majority of points. It’s related to the number of ‘deuce’ games the Greek won. In the opener he survived very important game trailing *2:3 (0/40); in the decider 5 out of 6 games, he won after ‘deuces’ being in a losing position in each of them! On serve Tsitsipas won two games trailing 15/40 (0:1 & 3:2), while on Nadal’s serve he collected games from 15/40 (at 2-all), 30/40 (at 4:2) and 0/30 (at 5:3)! In the last game the 12-years older Nadal saved three match points with three different winners, but on the fourth match point he netted his backhand.
Points won by each set: [ 21-31, 27-23, 27-21 ]
Points won directly on serve:
40 % Medvedev – 33 of 81
28 % Djokovic – 21 of 69
Through the first two sets it was a match like plenty of others. What makes it special is the decider. Before it kicked off, Medvedev [8] had survived two difficult moments in the 2nd set: he fought off a break point at 2-all with an ace out-wide, then he escaped from 0/30 at 3-all. The 3rd set it was a novelty in Medvedev’s performance – I had never seen before a player constantly hitting the serves with such a fury within one set; it was like an “all or nothing” attitude from the Russian. He served 24 times in that set, everything with the speed of his typical 1st serve (between 113 mph & 130 mph); 17 times first serve in (71%), the average speed of his second serves was 118 mph (189 kph… it was 154 kph in two previous sets)! He fired six aces (one off the second serve), three service winners & three double faults. He broke twice: at 1-all and in the last game converting the first match point passing Djokovic [1], who rushed behind his first serve.