1 Response to uo19nadal_medvedev

1. Voo de Mar says:

   September 12, 2020 at 4:49 am

   Points won by each set: [ 45-36, 31-25, 30-36, 32-33, 39-34 ]
   Points won directly on serve:
   18 % Nadal – 30 of 159… 18 % Medvedev – 34 of 182
   Percentage of winners:
   33 % Nadal – 59 of 177… 43 % Medvedev – 72 of 164

   A memorable final of two best players in Summer 2019: Nadal [2] won Montreal after reaching the Wimbledon semifinal meanwhile Medvedev [5], after a disappointment at Wimbledon, played three ATP finals, two of them lost, including 3-6, 0-6 to Nadal at the Canadian Open. Perhaps that bitter loss made an impact on the Russian, he looked much below his current level in the first two sets even though the scoreline wasn’t very bad for him. I had an impression that for the first 90 minutes he was more focused on avoiding another beat-down than on winning the final. And then, at 2:3* in the 3rd set when the finishing line was on the horizon, he relaxed himself and began playing better tennis. Broke back in the 6th game (Nadal helped missing an easy FH volley at one of deuces) and his serve improved afterwards (in the first two sets he was struggling a lot to get cheap points), helping him to save two mini-match points at 4-all and another two break points at 2-all in the 4th set. The Russian had a couple of break points leading 1:0 in the decider, an astonishing comeback seemed possible, then he lost a 40/0 advantage at 2-all. Nadal collected four consecutive games to lead 5:2 (30/15) on serve, the Russian didn’t surrender though, despite a 0-4 record in five-setters (even 0-5 counting his NextGen ’17 semifinal vs Chung). He had a break point to level at 5 games apiece, but ultimately after 4 hours 51 minutes (third longest final in the UO history) Nadal produced a service winner, and celebrated as usual on his back. It’s the second time a guy named ‘Medvedev’ loses a Grand Slam final, 20 years ago it was Andrei from Ukraine.

   Serve and volley: Nadal 12/15, Medvedev 19/26

   Nadal’s route to his 19th Grand Slam title (fourth at the US Open):
   1 John Millman 6-3, 6-2, 6-2
   2 Thanasi Kokkinakis w/o
   3 Hyeon Chung 6-3, 6-4, 6-2
   4 Marin Cilic 6-3, 3-6, 6-1, 6-2
   Q Diego Schwartzman 6-4, 7-5, 6-2
   S Matteo Berrettini 7-6(6), 6-4, 6-1
   W Daniil Medvedev 7-5, 6-3, 5-7, 4-6, 6-4

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