Appearing in his first final of the year, World No.4 Daniil Medvedev claimed the Rolex Paris Masters for the first time. The Russian defeated arch-rival Alexander Zverev and snapped his opponent’s 12 match winning streak. Despite losing the opening set, Medvedev won the decisive second set and then raced to an unassailable 4-0 lead in the third set to close out the match.

After a successful end to Paris Bercy, the tournament director, Guy Forget, talked about Medvedev’s impressive performance during the final. Guy reminisced about Medvedev’s public spat at the 2019 US Open, where the Russian ended as the runner-up. He compared the incident to the antics produced by John McEnroe and hailed Medvedev’s on-court madness as an interesting element of the sport.

“We know he’s a whimsical boy, that’s what makes his charm. He has that little touch of madness that makes him sympathetic. We remember his spat with the New York public who helped him to transcend himself. It was reminiscent of a certain John McEnroe. Tennis needs players like that, a little different. We have a beautiful winner.”

With the victory, Medvedev now trails Zverev 2-5 in their head-to-head record. He hammered 14 aces and won 75% of the points on his first serve. On the other hand, Zverev was playing in his third straight final after having won two successive titles at Cologne.

Daniil Medvedev to compete at ATP Nitto Finals

Last year, Medvedev qualified for the ATP World Tour Finals for the first time, but lost all his three matches in the round-robin stage. However, after triumphing in Paris Bercy, he has a strong chance to go the distance at the year-end finals this season.

The ultimate challenge will be to move past World No.1 Novak Djokovic, who will aim for a record sixth title at the ATP Nitto Finals.