By Richard Pagliaro | Friday, November 6, 2020
Daniil Medvedev won 27 of 28 first-serve points dismissing Diego Schwartzman 6-3, 6-1 charging into his second semifinal of the season in Paris.
Photo credit: Rolex Paris Masters Facebook
The rematch wasn’t exactly a grudge match, but Daniil Medvedev delivered explosive enmity in a dominant win.
Medvedev served 76 percent and won 27 of 28 first-serve points dismissing Diego Schwartzman 6-3, 6-1 powering into the Rolex Paris Masters semifinals for the first time.
More: Nadal Advances To Paris Quarterfinals
The 62-minute thrashing sends Medvedev into his second semifinal of the season and first since he reached the Flushing Meadows final four falling to eventual US Open champion Dominic Thiem.
"It was a good match," Medvedev said. "I think Diego is capable of playing better. So he didn't show his best tennis. I say it in a good way. I played a match against him in Sydney this year and we were both playing unbelievable there. It was really, really tight.
"So I managed to keep my level high all the match. He did some errors, which let me have control of the match. I was serving also so that was a key today.
Medvedev will meet Milos Raonic for a spot in Sunday's final.
Showing guts under pressure, Raonic saved two match points in the decisive tiebreaker and ripped his 25th ace on his second match point pulling out a gritty 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(7) win over Frenchman Ugo Humbert in a two hour, 18-minute thriller.
"I wouldn't necessarily say that that match point is necessarily the way I want to be playing too many points that I saved in that long rally, but I just tried to stick with it as much as possible, tried to find a way through and got a bit fortunate, hit a few balls close to the line," Raonic said. "You know, today it turned my way, but I've just got to keep plugging away. Doesn't necessarily mean it always will but at least give it a chance for it to turn around."
Bad blood between Medvedev and Schwartzman bubbled up at the ATP Cup in January when the Argentinean baseliner took exception to the 2019 US Open finalist’s antics in a contentious three-set win down under.
Before today’s rematch, both men said they’ve moved on and tried to bury the hatchet though they likely won’t be sharing coffee and croissants anytime soon.
“I think he did a mistake at that time in the ATP Cup, and maybe he understands that,” Schwartzman said of Medvedev. “We have just a relation between two guys who are playing the tour. We say hello in the morning, good morning, good afternoon, and we practice for a few times after ATP Cup in Roland Garros and in a few different places. Not more than that, you know. We are different guys from different parts of the world.”
Schwartzman wears a Disney logo on his shirt and took the court with an eye on tennis’ magic kingdom: the ATP Finals in London later this month.
A victory today would have clinched Schwartzman’s first trip to the ATP Finals. Despite this defeat, Schwartzman will still likely make his debut at the O2 Arena.
World No. 15 Pablo Carreno Busta, the ninth-ranked Argentinean's closest pursuer for the final spot in the eight-man London field must win both Paris and next week’s Sofia title to surpass Schwartzman.
The degree of difficulty is steep for Carreno Busta, a 2017 ATP Finals alternate, starting with his quarterfinal later today against Rafael Nadal, who owns a 6-0 lifetime record against his Davis Cup teammate and has won 21 straight matches vs. fellow Spaniards.
Needless to say, Schwartzman, who upset the king of clay in Rome in September, is a Nadal fan today.
"Since I won yesterday I'm just watching Pablo, because it's the only opponent I have right now," Schwartzman said. "Yeah, we were joking yesterday about the next tournament in Sofia, if he's going to play or if he's going to win this tournament.
"But, yeah, obviously I'm watching right now because I'm not anymore in the tournament, and today maybe I hope Rafa win."
While his feet were in Paris, the Roland Garros’ semifinalist’s mind may well have been on London as he took the court to face nemesis Medvedev.
The 24-year-old Russian won the toss and elected to receive. Seeking to exploit the 5’7” Schwartzman’s sometime shallow second serve, Medvedev dragged a few forehand errors breaking at 15 in the third game.
Medvedev unloaded a flurry of forehands backing up the break with his second straight love hold for 3-1.
The lanky Russian’s body recalls bamboo—reedy and sinewy. Facing one of the game’s top returners, Medvedev hitting his spots on first serve for much of the match. Medvedev overcame successive double faults zapping his second ace out wide holding for 5-3.
Aggressive court positioning helped Medvedev earn a second break. He ran down a drop shot and shoveled a backhand pass off the top of the tape down the line. Driving the Buenos Aires baseliner back behind the baseline, Medvedev drew a netted forehand to seal a one-set lead after 37 minutes.
A few reasons why this is a problematic match-up for Schwartzman is the rangy Russian possesses a much bigger serve, hits heavier and applies his skill using his expansive wingspan on the run. Several feet behind the court, Medvedev cracked a running forehand handcuffing the net-rushing Schwartzman breaking for a 3-1 second-set lead. Medvedev confirmed the break at 15.
"When I'm having a good day on the return side and feeling good and having breakpoints and breaking my opponent, I'm feeling good," Schwartzman said. "Today it didn't happen. He was serving really well. Many, many first serves in the first set. Then in the second he played a few points with the second.
"But I think at the end I was not doing a solid match. And against Daniil, you have to put every single point, 15, 20 balls, not trying to do winners quickly and not trying to go to the net quickly. I think I didn't have the patience to do it today, so that's was the difference."
By then, the world No. 9 was muttering misgivings to his coach. Even when Schwartzman got Medvedev moving he couldn’t always capitalize missing an open court forehand behind the 2019 US Open finalists to drop serve at love.
That fourth break gave Medvedev a commanding 5-1 lead.
Medvedev torched his eighth ace off the center stripe closing a 62-minute triumph with his fourth love hold.
"I think it's good that I went so far here already," Medvedev said. "Because it's good preparation for London. Conditions are quite similar. No spectators unfortunately, it's kind of dark...with no spectators it's strange, but I'm getting used to it, showing some good tennis, that's most important."
The third-seeded Medvedev improved to 4-0 vs. Schwartzman.
The 34th-ranked Humbert Humbert slammed an ace down the middle serving out the second set at love to force a decider after 69 minutes of play.
A rattled Raonic sprayed a diagonal forehand to face triple break point to start the final set.
Firing a series of first serves, Raonic rolled through six straight points to salvage a challenging hold with a forehand winner down the line.
The big Canadian earned two break points in the second game but could not buy a backhand under pressure as Humbert quieted the threat.
The left-hander saved two more break points in the fourth game.
Rapping a running forehand crosscourt, Humbert capped a love hold to force the third-set tiebreaker. Humbert was up 5-2 in the tiebreaker when Raonic answered with successive aces. On the Frenchman's first match point, the pair played a tremendous rally before Raonic worked his way forward and saved it with a forehand volley.
Raonic blasted a biting serve to save the second match point. When Humbert scattered a backhand wide, Raonic had hid his second match point and he slashed his 25th ace out wide to close in two hours, 18 minutes.