Medvedev Rallies Past Thiem for ATP Finals Title
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(November 22, 2020) Daniil Medvedev won the biggest title of his career, battling past Dominic Thiem 4-6, 7-6(2), 6-4 after two hours and 43 minutes to win the ATP Finals.
Medvedev, the first Russian champion since Nikolay Davydenko in 2009, also beat Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal earlier in the week — making him the first player to sweep the top three players in the ATP Rankings at the season year-end.
”It is amazing. In the group I beat Novak, then Rafa in the semifinals and Dominic in the final, best players in the world… means a lot,” said Medvedev. “[It] shows what I’m capable of when I’m playing good, when I’m feeling good mentally, physically. I know what I’m capable of. I just need to produce it more and more and hopefully more matches like this.”
“I always said before this tournament that it would be an amazing story if, here in London, where the tournament was for [12] years, that the first champion would be Russian and the last champion would be Russian, too,” Medvedev said. “A lot of thanks to Nikolay Davydenko for being an inspiration for many kids [like] me [by] winning here. I hope to continue doing his job.”
”It was the toughest victory in my life because Dominic is a really tough player to play,” said Medvedev. “I think today he was at his best, That’s what I felt during the match. He was really close to winning it [in the] second set. I managed to stay there. I felt in the third set that I was really tired physically, for sure, but I felt like he started to miss some balls, he started to run a little bit slower because he was tired.
”To make Dominic tired in a three-set match, not a five-set, I think is a great achievement. All these small things, Dominic is playing as [of] today [as] one of the best players in the history [of the sport], not yet maybe by the titles and Grand Slams, but as I say, playing [with the form of] today.”
Singles – Final
[4] Daniil Medvedev (RUS) d [3] Dominic Thiem (AUT) 46 76(2) 64
Doubles – Final
[5] Wesley Koolhof (NED) / Nikola Mektic (CRO) d [7] Jurgen Melzer (AUT) / Edouard Roger-Vasselin (FRA) 62 36 10-5