By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Friday January 28, 2022
Daniil Medvedev took out Stefanos Tsitsipas in four tough sets to reach his fourth major final.
Daniil Medvedev overcame Stefanos Tsitsipas – and his own fiery temper – to achieve a hard-won four-set victory and book his spot alongside Rafael Nadal in the Australian Open men’s singles final.
In a heated battle on Friday night in Rod Laver Arena, Medvedev topped the No.4-seeded Greek 6-7(5), 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 to improve to 19-5 at the Australian Open and 35-5 at hard court Grand Slams since the start of 2019.
2019 also represents the last time Medvedev faced the legendary Spaniard at a Grand Slam – he rallied from two sets down before falling in five sets to Nadal at the US Open, and holds a 1-3 lifetime record against the 20-time major champion.
The Russian continues to improve his game however, especially on hard courts, and he can take solace from the fact that he won his last battle with Nadal in three sets at the Nitto ATP Finals in London in 2020.
Medvedev can also take solace in the fact that he was able to overcome an emotional meltdown at the end of the second set, in which he got into a row with umpire Jaume Campistol after he was given a code violation for a visual obscenity.
Medvedev had double-faulted on break point to give Tsitsipas a chance to serve for the set, and he lost his cool as he screamed at Campistol, urging him to give a code violation to Tsitsipas for receiving coaching from his father, Apostolos.
Medvedev was fortunate not to be docked with a second code violation.
Tsitsipas did receive a code violation for coaching in the fourth set, after officials had placed Greek-speaking umpire Eva Asderaki and another official in proximity to Tsitsipas.
The match that played out between the lines of the court was also fiery, and there was very little between the two budding stars in the first two and a half sets.
Medvedev only dropped two service points in the first set, but Tsitsipas held his ground and had a lead in the first-set tiebreak before Medvedev surged back from 4-1 down to take it.
Tsitsipas broke twice in the second set to level the match, but he slowly disappeared from the fray in sets two and three. With no answer to Medvedev’s pinpoint serving, the Greek won just five return points over the final two sets and never sniffed a break point.
Still he held his own until 4-5 in the third set, when Medvedev broke to take the set.
From there the Russian reeled off eight of the final nine games to book his seventh career victory against just two losses against Tsitsipas.
Medvedev finished with 39 winners against 28 unforced errors, while Tsitsipas produced 35 winners and 32 unforced.
Medvedev equals Dominic Thiem and Stan Wawrinka for fifth on the active ATP list for Grand Slam finals played, and he ties legend Marat Safin for most Grand Slam finals played by a Russian man. Safin, a former World No.1, went two and two in his four finals, and is the last Russian man to win an Australian Open title, in 2005.