Alexander Zverev Blasts Past Daniil Medvedev to Deny Federer vs Nadal at ATP World Tour Finals 2019

Published 11/15/2019, 4:46 PM EST

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As Alexander Zverev defeated Daniil Medvedev 6-4, 7-6(4) in the last round-robin match of ATP World Tour Finals 2019, World Number one, Rafael Nadal is knocked out from London’s event. The Londoners were expecting a ‘Federer vs Nadal’ on Saturday but Sascha shattered their expectations by taking out the Russian in straight sets.

Set One: 

Trembling Daniil Medvedev was seen in the opening game who was making an effort to shorten his rallies. In the process of portraying his strategy, the Russian’s forehand was flawed and he lost his service game. Zverev’s serves were peaking as fast as 140mph, after acing a volley, the German consolidated for a 2-0 lead.

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During the first game…

Smart from Sascha!

The Russian Machine, Medvedev found his grooves in the next game and held his serve to 15. Big serves from Zverev continued and he led by 3-1. Sascha’s serving kept escalating with the match in progress, at 3-2 he aced with a magnitude of 144mph.

Medvedev continued to maintain the one break margin and played a clean game of tennis, however, he was unable to seek opportunities to retaliate for his service game loss.

While serving for the set, Alexander Zverev made a blunder. His a forehand drive volley went long and later, forehand passing shot on Sascha’s meek drop shot gave the Russian a 0*-30 advantage on the German’s serve. However, massive serves and heavy forehands gave him the set, 6-4.

The defending champion is on his way…

Set Two:

Two big servers on the fast court of London had put show an exhibition of service of games in the second set. There were no gestures of break points incoming as both Medvedev and Zverev had astute control on their service games. At 3-2 (with Medvedev in the lead) he won 10 points in a row on his serve. By 4-3, the Russian won 14 consecutive service points as his love-holds persisted.

104mph forehand from Zverev

However, at 4-4 on Medvedev’s serve, the game deviated from usual tennis which they portrayed in the set until then. It was an error-strewn game from Medvedev’s end and which also consisted of a double fault. Sascha has a chance to break, but the Russian erased it with an ace and later survived to lead by 5-4.

With their service games getting intact the set was pushed into the tiebreaker after their dominant holds at 6-6.

Second Set Tiebreaker: 

With Alexander Zverev placing the ball out on the first point, Daniil Medvedev led by a mini-break. Later, with Sascha retrieving the mini-break back and Medvedev flawing, the defending champion closed out the match with an ace.

Semifinals!

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Written by:

Mahalakshmi Murali

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Mahalakshmi Murali joined EssentiallySports in 2018 as a tennis author and has gone on to pen more than 1800 engaging articles, probing into various aspects of the sport and its illustrious players. With her expertise on the sport, Mahalakshmi has interviewed stalwarts from the sport such as Serena WIlliams’ coach Patrick Mouratoglou and Kevin Anderson’s physio, Carlos Costa. Equipped with her vast experience and a keen understanding of the sport, Mahalakshmi now co-heads the tennis department.
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