2 Responses to ao24sinner_medvedev

1. Voo de Mar says:

   January 28, 2024 at 7:57 pm

   Points won by each set: | 21-29, 25-37, 32-26, 36-30, 28-19 |
   Points won directly behind the serve:
   24 % Sinner – 35 of 144
   25 % Medvedev – 35 of 139

   Medvedev [3] has become the first Open Era player to succumb two major finals leading two-sets-to-love, and he infamously managed to do this on the same court within just two years (two years ago lost to Nadal much longer five-setter). Given almost a five-hour difference between him and Sinner [4] en route to the final, I expected rather easy victory for the Italian, but the Russian put all eggs in one basket. From the beginning he was trying to hit his 1st serves and ground-strokes as hard as possible, quite often approaching the net, and I realized that he entered the court with an assumption that this strategy would allow him to win 3-0 if everything worked perfectly. He was playing a flawless match until *5:1 in the 2nd set. Then he was broken, and everything became more complicated. Nevertheless only two games separated him to win in three and four sets (6 and 7 points away respectively). In the 4th set he even had a break point at 3-all (Sinner responded with an ace DTL). The longer the match, the rallies were more demanding (39 strokes in the opening game of the decider) which couldn’t work in Medvedev’s favor. In the deciding set he was visibly more tired, and broken at 2:3 quickly. Serving to win the biggest title of his life, Sinner didn’t choke, capitalizing on the first match point with a perfect rally construction to strike his trademark forehand down the line winner. 3 hours 44 minutes, and he celebrated on his back. In my opinion thanks to this title he already becomes the best Italian in history, surpassing Adriano Panatta, the French Open ’76 champion. I expect him to become the best player in the world in the next six months.

   Sinner’s route to his maiden Slam title:
   1 Botic van de Zandschulp 6-4, 7-5, 6-3
   2 Jesper de Jong 6-2, 6-2, 6-2
   3 Sebastian Baez 6-0, 6-1, 6-3
   4 Karen Khachanov 6-4, 7-5, 6-3
   Q Andrey Rublev 6-4, 7-6(5), 6-3
   S Novak Djokovic 6-1, 6-2, 6-7(6), 6-3
   W Daniil Medvedev 3-6, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-3

   Serve & volley: Sinner 1/2, Medvedev 1/3

   Sinner snapped Djokovic’s 33-match winning streak in Melbourne, he did it not facing a break point!
   

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2. Voo de Mar says:

   January 28, 2024 at 9:09 pm

   Medvedev has equalled the achievement of Solomon (French Open ’76) and Safin (Australian Open ’04) to play 30 sets in the fortnight.
   Arguably 31 because his first round match against Atmane was concluded at 5-7, 6-2, 6-4, 1-0 ret. (only 9 points were played in the 4th set)

   Sinner has played 15 finals (11-4 record), 1/3 of them against Medvedev!
   En route to the final he had lost his serve just twice, trailed 1:5 in the tie-break against Rublev (ten Slam defeats in the quarterfinals not progressing to the semifinals)

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