No. 2 seed Daniil Medvedev of Russia outlasted first alternate Jannik Sinner of Italy 6-0, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (8) in two hours and 29 minutes Thursday to stay perfect at the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin, Italy.
Medvedev won the red group in round-robin action and will face the green group’s runner-up in the semifinals.
Also Thursday, German No. 3 seed Alexander Zverev swept No. 7 Hubert Hurkacz of Poland 6-2, 6-4, to punch his ticket to the semifinals, where he’ll meet green group winner and top overall seed Novak Djokovic.
In the third set, Medvedev rallied from down 4-2 to win three straight games. Sinner, who entered the field late to replace injured countryman Matteo Berrettini, held serve with him until the tiebreak.
Sinner had match point at 6-5 of the tiebreak. Medvedev managed to win the point and served for the match at 7-6, but Sinner fought back with two points of his own and a second match point at 8-7.
Medvedev earned the last three points to clinch the match.
“It was tough,” Medvedev said in his on-court interview. “I won the first set quite easily and I was like, ‘Let’s continue this way.’ The second set was about an hour or so and then it is the third set. But you’re not going to not play the third set because I like to win; I don’t like to lose. I am happy I won.”
Medvedev served up 18 aces while winning 55 of his 72 first-service points (76.4 percent). The U.S. Open champion also converted five of 11 break-point opportunities while saving three of five.
Zverev sent Hurkacz home 0-3 in round-robin play. Hurkacz never took Zverev to break point. Both players had 11 aces, but Zverev was much more tidy, going 33-for-38 on first-service points.
“Today was a tough match mentally because I needed to win, so I was 100 per cent focused,” Zverev said. “It was very up and down, and I am happy to be through and win in straight sets. You can always improve. The margins are always very small between the top players, but to win you have to do the details right. I hope I can do that on Saturday.”
The ATP Finals are the tour’s season-ending championships and pit the top eight singles players and doubles teams, per the ATP rankings. In singles, players begin with a single round-robin in two groups of four, concluding Friday. The top two players in each group advance to the knockout phase.
–Field Level Media
