ATP Finals: Medvedev beats De Minaur to keep semi-final hopes alive
The Russian won 6-2, 6-4 to pick up his first victory of the group stage
Daniil Medvedev, ATP Finals 2024
Antonio Calanni/AP/SIPA
Russia’s Daniil Medvedev scored a morale-boosting straight sets win over Australia’s Alex de Minaur in the Ilie Nastase group at the ATP Finals on Tuesday to keep his chances of making the semi-finals in Turin alive.
Having lost his first group match to Taylor Fritz on Sunday, Medvedev started his second group match on a strong note, breaking the Australian’s serve twice to win the first set. In the second set, the Russian got a decisive break in the ninth game and then served out to complete the 6-2, 6-4 win.
Medvedev improved to 7-3 lifetime against De Minaur, avenging a loss in their most recent clash at this year’s French Open. It also marked the sixth top-10 win of the season for the Russian and his 12th win at the season-ending tournament. Tuesday’s win was the first win on indoor hard court for the 28-year-old since this tournament last year.
With this, Medvedev, who is making his sixth consecutive appearance in the season-ending event, now has one win in two matches this week and will play world No 1 Jannik Sinner on Thursday in his final group match. De Minaur, making his debut in the event, falls to 0-2 after two straight defeats.
“Just block the noise” – Medvedev
After the win, Medvedev put his fingers to his ears and then signed off the camera lens with the line “Block the Noise”. During the post-match interview on court, the Russian spoke about his peculiar post-match celebration.
“I think a lot of football players do it. If I understand it right, it’s more about social media. After my performance with Taylor and some of my comments, I tried to use it less. I went into this match blocking the noise, even from myself. No tantrums. Just block the noise. I really didn’t care what was happening on the court. I just tried to play. It was a good feeling. Usually, I celebrate when I win the tournaments, but today I didn’t care,” Medvedev said.
Fritz can qualify for semi-finals with win on Tuesday
The current win-loss performance of the four players in the Ilie Nastase group is as below. If Fritz beats Sinner in the second match of the day, the American will qualify for the semi-finals. If the Italian wins, then both the semi-final berths will be in play on Thursday.
Ilie Nastase Group:
- Jannik Sinner – 2 wins 0 losses
- Daniil Medvedev – 1 win 1 loss
- Taylor Fritz – 2 wins 1 loss
- Alex de Minaur – 0 wins – 3 losses
