Title-holder Medvedev reaches Turin final with Ruud destruction

2021 ATP Finals, Turin | Draw | Schedule

• What happened: Daniil Medvedev continued his defence of his Nitto ATP Finals crown with a straight-sets demolition of Casper Ruud.
• Why it matters: The world No 2 got his first straight-sets win this week in Turin.
• You will also learn: Medvedev’s current impressive win streak at the event.

Daniil Medvedev’s defence of his Nitto ATP Finals crown continued on Saturday in Turin as he confirmed his place in the final with a 6-4, 6-2 destruction of eighth seed Casper Ruud.

The Russian now stretches his win streak at the year-end event to 9-0 following his triumph last year. He’ll play third seed Alexander Zverev, the 2018 champion, who upset Novak Djokovic in the second semi-final.

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It took him 80 minutes to close out his first straight-sets triumph of the week, hitting 17 winners along the way.

“As soon as you are a set and a break up you feel like you are in control, but that is when the danger is,” Medvedev said in his on-court interview. “You need to stay focused and fight for every point. In the last game I had 0-30 on my serve, and until the last point, it is never over. So I am happy I was able to finish it.

“I think all the matches were a great level. Different opponents and different styles. I managed to win all the matches. It was not an easy match [today]. When you are in the final you can’t complain, so I am just looking forward to tomorrow and hopefully I can have my best match.”

Medvedev said he had tried to target Ruud’s backhand – and keep the ball away from his deadly forehand.

“When you play somebody like Casper, you know that his biggest weapon is forehand. I think that’s not a surprise. Everybody knows it on tour,” he said.

“Of course, the more you touch his backhand, the better. That’s where he’s smart and good. He tries to turn around, go down the line to open his forehand side, which is normal. The plan was to try to get to his backhand, but also try to make it deep, low, strong, to not let him, yeah, try to get the next shot on the forehand.”

Ruud proud of reaching ATP Finals for first time

Ruud said he was proud of his year, which included five titles and saw him qualify for the ATP Finals for the first time.

It’s been a great year for me and my development as a tennis player, getting to know my opponents more, where the level on top of the world is by playing this tournament. It’s been a great experience.

To finish a very good year off with a tournament here in Turin has been a great experience for me and something I will be eager to try to repeat and be back next year.

When next year starts, I will obviously have it in the back of my mind that every week matters, every match matters. When you saw this year, it was only couple of matches here and there that made a difference on making the tournament or qualifying for the tournament or not.

I’m, of course, proud of the year, what I accomplished this year. But also looking forward to next year, knowing if I keep playing well, keep doing the right things, I can have another good year hopefully like this next year.”

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