By Canadian Press

Perfect Sinner beats Medvedev at ATP Finals to set up title match against Djokovic or Alcaraz

Nov 18, 2023 | 10:58 AM

TURIN, Italy (AP) — Jannik Sinner’s impressive run at the ATP Finals continued Saturday as he beat Daniil Medvedev 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-1 to reach the final in Turin, much to the home crowd’s delight.

Already the first Italian to play in the semifinals of the season-ending tournament for the year’s top eight players, Sinner went one step further and booked his place in Sunday’s final against either Novak Djokovic or Carlos Alcaraz.

The top two ranked players were playing each other later Saturday.

Sinner has won all four of his matches at the ATP Finals, including a mesmerizing first-ever victory over Djokovic earlier this week. Sinner has won four of his seven matches against Alcaraz, including the last two encounters.

Sinner has been fervently backed by the fans in Turin — with the orange-clad “Carota Boys” ever present — and the 22-year-old raised his arms to the joyous crowd after serving the match out to love against 2020 champion Medvedev.

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“It is a privilege to have this kind of pressure,” Sinner said. “The crowd has given me so much energy.

“It was a very difficult match. He started better than me, then I somehow managed to get the break and then I felt a bit better.”

Sinner is already up to No. 4 in the rankings — the highest an Italian man has risen since Adriano Panatta nearly a half-century ago.

Sinner’s win over the third-ranked Medvedev also saw him become the Italian with the most victories over top-five players (10), breaking Panatta’s record.

Medvedev had won all six of his matches against Sinner before last month but the Italian had ended that streak with victories in the finals at Beijing and Vienna.

Sinner took the solitary break in the first set — after having to fend off an earlier break point himself — but Medvedev appeared to get stronger as the match drew on.

Medvedev stormed through the second-set tiebreaker and leveled the match on the second of three set points when Sinner hit a forehand long.

There was a lengthy delay before the deciding set as Medvedev had off-court treatment but Sinner managed to keep his focus during the pause and broke his opponent’s serve in the second game following a rare double-fault from the Russian player.

The nerves appeared to be setting in for Medvedev and moments later he hurled his racket at the boards after losing a scintillating rally, before remonstrating with the crowd as the boos rang out.

Medvedev managed to avoid a complete meltdown but Sinner dominated the decider and broke again in the sixth game before serving out to love.

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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis

The Associated Press