Tennis: Medvedev against Sinner – Vienna has its “dream final”

The top-seeded Russian defeated the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas 6:4,7:6(6) in front of around 9,600 fans on Saturday and thus reached his ninth final this year. In the final on Sunday (2 p.m./live ServusTV) he will face Jannik Sinner (ITA-2), who eliminated Andrej Rublew (RUS-3) 7:5,7:6(5).

Medvedev, third in the world rankings, mostly had the stamina in the match, which was worth seeing for a long time, even if Tsitsipas also presented himself strongly in his first Vienna semi-final. A break to 4:3 meant the preliminary decision in the first set, Medvedev served out after 39 minutes to make it 6:4. In the second round, the Russian did not use a total of three break points and went into the tiebreak without any loss of service. In this he won 8:6.

“I’m happy with myself, no breaks against me. I didn’t take advantage of some opportunities in the second set, but he also played well,” said Medvedev in his press conference around 90 minutes after his match. Medvedev has had heated disagreements with Tsitsipas in the past. The two players are not and will not be the best of friends. “Yes, it might make the rivalry a little more intense. We both definitely want to win. I always want to win every match, but maybe it’s true that there is an extra percentage of motivation.”

Medvedev hopes to defend his title

Medvedev hopes to be able to successfully defend a title for the first time ever in Vienna. The five-time Grand Slam finalist has won 20 tournaments so far, but all at different venues.

Afterwards, Rublev was already ahead 5:2 in the first set, but lost the set 5:7. During this phase, the sometimes very hot-tempered Russian hit his left knee twice with the covering and also injured himself slightly. The Russian caught himself and gave the South Tyrolean a fight worth seeing in the second round. Rublew equalized a break to 4:5 with an immediate rebreak, he held on until 5:5 in the tiebreak, but then Sinner had the better end for himself. He reached the final without losing a set. For the first time since 1994, the top 4 were in the semifinals in Vienna, and for the first time ever, four players from the top 7 in the world rankings.

“It means a lot to me that I’m in the final and even more so against Daniil, because I lost to him a lot, won the last time, but this is a completely different place,” explained Sinner. “He beat me there last year, we’ll see. But in general I can be happy with my performance.”

With his 55th win of the season, Sinner also set an Italian record. No other countryman in history has celebrated more successes in one season (until Corrado Barazzutti with 54 in 1978).

“Jannik plays well”

Sinner has a 1:6 record against Medvedev, but the 22-year-old’s only victory so far came just a few weeks ago in the Beijing final with two 7:6 scores. “Jannik is playing well, he’s only 22. It was a tough match in Beijing, but it was also very close. I’ll try not to lose my service again and play better in the tiebreak,” predicted Medvedev.

During the break before the second semifinal, tournament director Herwig Straka received an award. The 57-year-old Styrian, who has led the Vienna tournament to new heights for 15 years, received the City of Vienna’s Golden Medal of Merit from city councilor Peter Hanke. In 2023, the audience “sound barrier” of 70,000 fans will be broken and the previous year’s number will even be exceeded.