Jannik Sinner soars to China Open title and breaks losing streak against Daniil Medvedev in close-knit battle

ATP
Wednesday, 04 October 2023 at 16:21
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Jannik Sinner secured the ATP China Open title after a close-knit battle with Daniil Medvedev in the final at the National Tennis Center in Beijing.

Sinner defeated Medvedev in straight sets with both going to a tiebreak, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (2). This came after the Italian player ousted top seed Carlos Alcaraz in the semi-final 7-6 (4), 6-1 to set up the clash with Medvedev in the final.

Ahead of the match, the odds were not in the sixth seed's favor, with the Russian leading their head-to-head 6-0, including two wins so far this season. However, Sinner was able to finally get a match win against the World No. 3, along with the ATP 500 tournament title.

Players neck-and-neck in both sets

Both players started out strongly by consistently holding their serves. However, it was Medvedev who perhaps looked more in control at the beginning of the match as one of Sinner's early service games went to a deuce. He was able to hold though and found himself with two break points in Medvedev's next service game.

However, the second seed was able to fight back and save his service game, acing Sinner to hold. They both went on to dominate several service games in the match until a tiebreak was required.

It was in the tiebreak that Sinner was finally able to get ahead of Medvedev, building up a solid 5-0 lead. The 27-year-old lost both of his points on serve after a double fault and an unforced error. However, he managed to get a point on the board with the help of his powerful serve to take the score to 5-1. This was short-lived though as he proceeded to hit the ball out and then into the net, which saw Sinner win the first set.

The second set was very similar to the first in many ways. Medvedev came back fighting to win his first service game 40-0 after briefly leaving the court during the break. Sinner then built up two break points shortly afterwards but was unable to successfully convert either of them.

The 22-year-old made light work of his own service games, powering through several of them with barely any room for Medvedev to get a point on the board. His opponent also held firm though and it wasn't long before another tiebreak was reached.

At this point, the match still could have gone either way, although Medvedev had a slightly higher number of unforced errors overall and Sinner had appeared to be the slightly more aggressive player throughout.

The Italian got the first point of the tiebreak on Medvedev's serve before holding both of his won service points to reach a 3-0 lead. His opponent was able to fight back more successfully than in the first set, bringing it to 3-2, but could do nothing more from there as Sinner built up four championship points and won the first one.

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