Back to business: Medvedev dedicates Vienna trophy to his wife after comeback win over Shapovalov

Russian Daniil Medvedev, the top seed, won the Vienna Open trophy by defeating Canadian Denis Shapovalov 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 at the Wiener Stadthalle on Sunday.

And he dedicated the win to his wife Dasha, who recently gave birth to the couple’s first child – a little girl.

“I became a dad two weeks ago, and I was asked if I was going to dedicate this to my daughter,” he said afterwards. “I was thinking I’m not going to dedicate it to my daughter, I’m going to dedicate it to my wife, because she gave me the most beautiful present ever. I was there and this emotion is much more than winning any title.”

Medvedev: ‘You’d have beaten me in any of my other finals this year!’

Shapovalov might have thought his luck was turning after the first set – in their last three encounters, Medvedev had beaten him in straight sets.

But this was a Medvedev set on winning only his second singles title of the season. He did lift the trophy in Los Cabos, but fell in the finals in the Australian Open, ‘s-Hertogenbosch, and Halle. With this return to form, he showed that he doesn’t always fade under the pressure of being labelled the frontrunner.

“The way I’ve been playing this year, if it had been any other final, you would have beaten me!” joked Medvedev to Shapovalov afterwards.

Ahead of his victory, Medvedev, who will return to the third spot in the ATP world rankings with this win, beat Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili (6-2, 6-2), Austrian Dominic Thiem (6-3, 6-3), Italian Jannik Sinner, the No 6 seed (6-4, 6-2) and Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov (6-4, 6-2).

Shapovalov, ranked No 19, beat Austrian wildcard Jurij Rodionov (6-4, 6-4), American Taylor Fritz, the No 4 seed (6-1, 4-6, 6-3), Daniel Evans (6-3, 6-3) and Croat Borna Coric (7-6 (4), 6-0) in the previous rounds of the Vienna.