RUSSIA’S DANIIL MEDVEDEV overpowered Stefanos Tsitsipas this morning to make his first Australian Open final, where he will bid to stop world number one Novak Djokovic from clinching an unprecedented ninth title.
The fourth seed proved far too strong for Greece’s Tsitsipas, crushing him 6-4, 6-2, 7-5 in front of more than 7,000 noisy fans at Rod Laver Arena to extend his win streak to 20.
The 25-year-old, ultra-confident on the back of his unbeaten run, which includes three titles, has been knocking on the door of Grand Slam success for some time, but has yet to win a title.
To finally get over the line he must on Sunday beat top seed Djokovic, who has won all eight finals he has played at Melbourne Park.
But nobody on tour has more momentum than Medvedev, whose tricky game has stymied all opponents since November, and he has won three of his last four against the 17-time Grand Slam-winning Serb.
“It definitely wasn’t easy,” said Medvedev, only the third Russian after Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Marat Safin to reach the Australian Open final.
“I got a little bit scared and tight (in the third set) because it’s a semi-final of a Slam… but happy I was able to turn my game on, especially in some tight moments on my serve.”
"Hopefully I can keep the momentum going."@DaniilMedwed is aiming for 2️⃣1️⃣ at #AO2021.#AusOpen pic.twitter.com/nZgDrWZH5K
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) February 19, 2021
Medvedev came into the showdown boasting a 5-1 edge in their head-to-heads and a frosty relationship stemming from Shanghai in 2019, when the popular Greek blasted his slugfest playing style as “boring”.
Fifth seed Tsitsipas was backing up from a stunning five-set upset of 20-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal, but it was an energy-sapping four-hour epic and he appeared to feel the effects.
In front of vocal, flag-waving Greek fans, the servers controlled the points as they moved to 2-2 in the opening set before the Russian, anchored to the baseline, drew first blood.
Until then, Tsitsipas had only faced eight break points in the entire tournament, but Medvedev earned two and converted on the second when the Greek sent a return long.
Medvedev, who also reached the 2019 US Open final, stayed focused and worked two set points at 5-4. But Tsitsipas defended both successfully with deep, aggressive returns as the crowd lifted their volume.
He sent down his first double-fault of the match on his third before blasting an ace and a winner to take a one-set lead.
Medvedev dominated the long rallies, with Tsitsipas needing to fight hard for every point, and he was broken again after a seven-minute marathon game when the Russian blasted a sizzling forehand down the line for 2-1 second-set advantage.
Frustrated, Tsitsipas slammed his water bottle to the ground at the changeover, with the ballkids forced to mop up the mess after it burst and sprayed everywhere.
Medvedev was commanding on serve and a glum Tsitsipas unravelled, broken again, to love, on his next game as the Russian raced through the set in 36 minutes.
He was broken again early in the third set and appeared spent, but roared on by the crowd he found new reserves to break back for 3-3.
For the first time in the match, Medvedev was under pressure but held his nerve with a glorious passing shot giving him another break for 6-5 before he calmly served out to win.
Didn’t Donegal play Tyrone in the first round? And Dublin will play Kildare in the next round, as will Cork and Kerry, and it’s not the GAAs fault that Galway have melted into a shambles. We would then have had Mayo v Galway too in the first round. All of this before the end of June. Then you have the real payoff, the excitement of seeing the very best teams against each other in August and September, the way any worthy competition should be. The GAA has plenty of flaws but I think this article is a very unfocused knee-jerk reaction to a few hidings dished out by teams on top of their game.
Dave agree entirely
A Dubs fan
Lot of people talking about Mayo this year but where have we heard that before
Wouldn’t write off Kerry either S a lot of people seem to be doing
I’m a Dubs man meself Declan. I think this Mayo team is a different proposition from previous years, there’s a hard edge to them which I think makes them serious contenders.
I think Dublin, Donegal, Cork and Mayo are all around the same level (one from each province too, which is nice) then there’s Tyrone, Kerry and Kildare a level just below that. 7 realistic contenders for the All Ireland, there’s nothing wrong with that.
Yes agree 7 teams with varying degrees of optimism
If they had that in the premiership they would be laughing!!
Mayo have new fitness coach so let’s see
A dubs fan passing a comment about another team being over hyped early in the year.. Oh the irony!
San Marino get hammered every time they play but you don’t see fifa changing around the format of the European/world cup qualifiers so they can win a few games
If counties are not up to the standard why should the gaa change around the format to try and suit them, the football championship is very strong and some teams will get left behind
They change the format every few tournaments! And they do it to allow a more desirable geographic spread off WC finals competitors
The fact that there are eight competitive teams places the Gaa in an enviable position . It can’t be said of other codes. How many EPL winners have there been since its inception . The GAA championship compares very Favourably. It’s not long since Dublin and Donegal were on the wrong end of a few such drubbings . In 2011 London almost beat mayo who then made an all Ireland semi final , beating the all Ireland champions en route. Louth contested a Leinster final . Wexford likewise on a couple of occasions. Similar knee jerk reaction were pedalled out in 2010 when none of the provincial finalists reached the semi finals . September is the time to make a more considered judgment
GAA is fine as is.
If other counties want to perform they can pay for more training sessions and try and get more people to come to the matches.
I agree in part. But I don’t think it means we need to rearrange the format of the championship. Every time a team gets hammered some people talk about the need to level the playing field. The system is fine. It has been changed once, with the back door, if they change it again like they did with the league over and over again people will lose interest.
We had years of Galway hurling people blaming the structure of the championship for them not winning, now it’s the championship structures that Galway footballers are rubbish,
Derry were not well beaten, in fact they played some of the best football of the championship to date in the best game to date. Diagonal balls to Bradley and his destruction of Down defense in first half was a joy to watch.
Westmeath got a day out in croker they saw the level they need to aspire too its all a learning curve / and that’s always the way it’s been how else are you going to improve
The money and the people involved with the Dublin team vs small counties like w.meath is very unfair.Maybe a large populace county like Dublin should field two teams a city and county team.
As Kerry do each year and how All Ireland’s have they won with a small population
The whole thing is a farce lets do away with the provincials 8 groups of 4 top 2 into the the A final bottom 2 to a B Final and in the last 16 -an open draw when your out you are out at least the teams in the final get to play the same amount of games.
Yeah, everyone would get three games and the eventual finalists would get 7. Seems fair
I wouldn’t do an open draw for the last 16 though. I’d run it like a Heineken Cup. The best performing team plays worst and so forth, to reward consistent good play
The championship is fine the way it is. They should give division 3 and 4 teams home advantage when playing division 1 teams.
The championship format is fairly rubbish to be honest. It’s not fair in my opinion to the Ulster teams especially. The Connaught and Munster Championships and somewhat Leinster are absolute dire. They should have a Champions League style format of 8 groups of 4 teams and the top 2 from each group enter the Last 16 of the All Ireland with the top from each group playing a 2nd placed team. The groups would also be seeded from their National League position meaning all Division 1 teams would be in a separate group and so on. At least every team would get 3 Championship games, the prospect of an open draw would also do much to enhance the game….and I’m not from Ulster!
I don’t see how ulster is any better. Donegal are near certainties for ulster this year and that will be 3 in a row and before them Tyrone and Armagh shared it for the previous ten years.
Leinster and ulster have to win more games to win an all Ireland however which is definitely unfair.
Kerry and cork basically don’t have to do anything until August because the rest of Munster are light years behind them. This is extremely unfair on the rest and plays a large part in Kerry’s success in my opinion despite their producing some excellent teams.
Some people suggest that it’s better for Kerry/Cork to take the back door route as they get more competitive games. As it is they get to play Each other in their only tough match before Aug and arrive untested into the Knockout stages.
These two scenarios get played out whenever Kerry/cork reach the QF and either win easily or lose comfortably.
If they get to QF by winning munster and win easily its cos they are fresh from easy matches. If they lose its cos they are untested.
For decades ulster was the weakest province, now it’s the most competitive. Why, they work hard but helped as all the counties place football number one. In Munster only Kerry place football 1, all the others are hurling or 50/50 in corks case. Munster will never have 6 strong teams
Maybe picky, but Derry WERE Division 2 and Down WERE Division 1, but Derry got promoted, Down got relegated, so division 2 team beat division 1 team.
(Best game if championship so far – great advert for GAA)