Daniil Medvedev shocked the world and eliminated Novak Djokovic at the Western and Southern Open Masters in Cincinnati. The Russian defeated the world’s No.1 in three sets, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3. He will now face David Goffin in the finals this Sunday.
Djokovic, who felt a slight pain in his elbow the day before, didn’t have those sort of troubles, but had one hell of an opponent across the net. The Joker opened the game pretty well, and his play was at a high level. Strikes were precise and sharp, and the movement was solid.
He took the first set in just 35 minutes, with one breakpoint won, in the sixth game of that sequence.
Djokovic continued in the same manner throughout the next set and pressured Medvedev constantly. Novak had a chance for a breakpoint in the fifth game but failed to use it; that is, Medvedev’s service saved the Russian. That was the moment when the momentum changed sides. Medvedev rose to the occasion, while Djokovic’s composure vanished for one moment. It was enough for the No.8 to seize the opportunity. He broke the Serb’s service and leveled the score to 1-1.
The best for Medvedev was yet to come. Djokovic experienced a blackout in his game, and couldn’t find his rhythm. Meanwhile, his rival was serving as frenetic, and he didn’t allow Novak to have the slightest chance of coming back into the match.
He explained at the press how he began serving that good.
“Usually I’ll go bigger on my second serve when it’s not working, and Novak was just destroying me in the first set. At one moment, I said to myself, why do a normal second serve if I’m going to lose the point. I started to win much more after that.”
His second services were over 200km/h, which is something rarely seen these days. Novak couldn’t expect much in that position, especially because Medvedev played like he had nothing to lose. And indeed, it was like that.
In the end, Djokovic congratulated his opponent, saying that he fully deserved to reach the finals.
This will be Medvedev’s third final on in the last three weeks. He lost the previous two, and hopes now to take some silverware finally.
“I need to win,” said Medvedev smiling about the fact that he has a negative record in the recent finals.
At first, he suffered a defeat against Nick Kyrgios in Washington DC. After that, he entered the finals of Rogers Cup, but couldn’t do anything against Rafael Nadal.
As for Novak, this defeat won’t affect his plans or his mind too much. He is after the US Open for various reasons. First, he wants to decrease the gap between him and Federer at the all-time list of the Grand Slam trophies. Second, if he defends those 2,000 points, he will have a nice position to stay at No.1 in the rankings throughout the entire first half of the next season. He currently chases Federer’s record of weeks spent at the top position in the ATP rankings.
