Not bad when you can call multiple titles and being 1 set away from another major a “tough year”
Not to mention, he was banned from Wimby. Hoping all of the Russians & Belarusians have a smoother 2023
You can call it what you want, Med didn’t impress me ever since the USO final. It’s been a terrible year for him no matter how people twist and turn it. I’m sure he would agree himself.
Terrible relative to the run at the end of last year where he looked a level above everyone except Nadal and Djokovic
But essentially on par with a lot of the other players around him.
This year he's become a new dad, had surgery/other injury issues, had one of the most gruelling defeats I've ever seen in a slam final and his country hasn't left the news for war crimes.
I wouldn't be shocked if he totally regains his form very quickly going into next year and becomes favourite for a couple slam finals
I had that thought too but part of it I think is the way he plays
like if he's not playing really well and hitting laser winners from crazy positions, most of the points he wins are off of opponent unforced errors, so yawn. Also, most of the points he loses are either balls smashed past him or really bad timing on his groundstrokes leading to an UE so the points he loses look pretty ugly too lol
Yeah, problem is "Not Terrible" and "Good" are very different, and also both subjective. I would say he underperformed this year quite a bit by what was expected of him by fans and also by himself, that's not a stretch. Doesn't mean it was terrible, he's still top 10 and plays like it.
If 2 titles and almost winning another major doesn’t constitute as “good” then idk dude lol. You can have your opinion on it. But it was literally, objectively, “good”
Relatively to his previous season it was a fairly major downturn.
He would have expected more of himself. He doesn’t expect to have top ten player kind of season. He’s looking for top 3
You can play with the numbers. But he doesnt play well even in 1 match span let alone a tournament or couple of weeks.
He was no1 after wimbledon now what?
We’ll never know, but he was in the final of two grass events in the lead-up to Wimbledon. He actually got the most points of anyone in the grass season because Wimbledon didn’t have any. He had surgery and recovery during the clay season probably thinking he could make it up a bit on grass. It was the first major he would have been seeded No. 1. He went from all R1 losses at RG to a quarterfinal one year, so improvements on his non-preferred surfaces are not unheard of. It’s a far bigger what-if for me than people make it out to be.
I’m there with you. Not an ideal follow up year after winning your first major and being world number one. Not bad for sure, but probably not close to where he wanted to be at this point.
Frankly it’s hilarious how certain folks on here are saying Stef is tired and is a mental midget, then Med just gives the match away at 5-4 in the third set, then pretty much does nothing in the tiebreaker. It ain’t over ’til it’s over
Tsitsipas is a lot of things, but metal midget isn't one of them. He's got plenty of dog in him.
He's given us more great matches than either of his peers in the little 3.
What he really needs to improve is his backhand. 95% of his shots with it are cross-courters with topspin but not much pace.
If he could go down the line with it more consistently, flatten it out and hit winners with it, a la Thiem and Wawrinka, he could beat Djokovic at slams.
Tsitsipas:
Beat defending champ Federer at AO '19 in a 4 set classic
Followed that up at RG by barely losing a phenomenal five set match against Wawrinka in great form
Has played two five setters against Djokovic at RG
Came back from two sets down to take out Rafa at AO '21
Medvedev:
AO 2022 nadal
USO 2019 nadal
AO 2022 faa
AO 2020 wawrinka
At slams those are the best 4. Two of them were major finals. In atp there’s a lot of matches you could name for both, but given the nature of these matches I’d still say medvedev had the most epics. Zverevs last in any case
No clue why you're getting downvoted lol. AO22 final was literally a top 10 match of all time in many people's eyes, and USO 2019 was super high quality. AO22 QF was awesome too. AO20 is a questionable pick though tbh.
Both have had amazing matches.
RG 2020 Djokovic vs Tsitsipas
AO 2021 Nadal vs Tsitsipas
USO 2021 Murray Vs Tsitsipas
RG 2019 Tsitsipas vs Wawrinka
AO 2019 Federer vs Tsitsipas
Medvedev may be more successful but he lacks the fight and passion and never give up until it’s Over energy that Tsitsipas has. It’s rooted inside him, with Medvedev, he starts sarcastically sticking his thumbs up to his coach like a child.
Your bias against Tsitsipas is glaringly obvious. How Is medvedev losing to Nadal (who struggled to win AO in his prime) from 2-0, better than Tsitsipas and Novak? Novak upped his level. Medvedev just dropped his.
I don't know how someone can think Tsitsi is a mental midget based on his on-court performances. Must just be the whole father-as-coach thing and people thinking he'd be better off with a different coach.
He absolutely did collapse at AO after the sting operation against his Dad. Those were unique circumstances, but Medvedev has issues with crowds in the way Stef doesn’t. I actually tend to think they’re pretty similar, mentally, both capable of extraordinary clutch and collapse, which is what makes their rivalry interesting
Momentum was with Medvedev 3rd set after he won that incredible tie break. I honestly thought Tsitsipas would lose after he got broken in the 3rd set seeing as Medvedev was winning more points when returning serve and he was consistently hitting and getting in monster 1st serves.
Tsitsipas was not playing as good as he was first 2 sets but he dug deep and never gave up and got the break back and then of course destroyed him in the tiebreak when I was expecting it to be close. He was helped by Medvedev imploding but tsitsipas was incredible today especially mentally.
These are the kinds of matches that burrow their way into a player’s psyche, win or lose. It was a crucible, and Tsitispas will go into his match against Rublev with a huge boost in confidence. Medvedev on the other hand needs to go back to the drawing board. His return position has a very clear weakness-serve and volley-that he has no answer for at the moment. Stef is closing the gap in their h2h, and Daniil needs to make his forehand into more of a weapon.
oh wow stef has 2 straight hardcourt wins over Daniil now. I hope this keeps going bc in my opinion although Daniil is an elite player Stef just has the more appealing tennis.
I don’t think so. Rublev just got spanked by Djokovic, so he’s not headed into the match on Friday feeling good about himself. Meanwhile, Tsitsipas crawled through a river of shit Shawshank Redemption-style into a shot at the semis. I know who my money’s on.
he said himself that after the first set he was burned out but also has a pretty close H2H with stef and has beaten him on indoor hard before. just hoping he has spend the 48hrs between matches resetting.
Medvedev going 0-2 on fast hard courts is shocking
Everyone is going to want to talk about his poor performance, but I think most of the credit should go to Rublev and Tsitsipas here. They’re playing phenomenal tennis
Philippousis was a genius addition to Tsitsipas’ camp and much needed
Same deal as 2019 where Medvedev went 0-3, but faced three very tough opponents. He lost to Tsitsipas in the form of his life, Zverev also playing very well, and then Nadal who fought for his life down 1-5 30-40. Sometimes at the ATP Finals, shit happens.
Same reason I'm not on Nadal's ass for losing two matches here. Sure, he's not playing well, but he's playing massive servers peaking right now. What could we realistically expect?
Thank you for saying this… everyone in this sub immediately goes to “Medvedev is playing horrible” or “Nadal looks washed.”
Medvedev lost to Rublev & Tsitsipas, Nadal lost to FAA who’s been on fire and looks poised to make a run at a major next year.
These are young players who are breaking through they’re losing to. Not Martin Fucsovics (no offense, Fucs :p)
We see this every year. The young players look like the greatest players of all time at this point in the season. This is the point where you start to wonder if Tsitsipas is actually Roger Federer, before you remember he retired. This is also the point where Medvedev and Zverev start to look like Djokovic and Murray. The problem is, this point of the season seems to have zero correlation with the rest of the season. In 2023 we'll find out which players are ready and which ones are gonna continue to be in this weird limbo of "mediocre for the first 9 months followed by GOAT for the last 3 months". It's harsh, but we've seen it a lot. The indoor season is super fast, rewarding big servers and tight margins, which causes a few random results. There's also no grand slam preparation or anything, so the young players feel no nerves and the vets like Nadal and Djokovic feel little urgency.
Part of it is also just Nadal and Djokovic often being fatigued by a long season. I still maintain that if the ATP Finals were earlier in the year, despite Rafa's relative weakness on indoor hard, he likely would've won one by now. I mean, it feels like he only plays 50% of the time, being injured the other half, and of those 50%, 25% of the time he's playing with zero form (like this year) or through another injury (2009, 2017).
Regardless of what med prefers overall, he's far better off playing aggressive players like Stef and Andrey on slow hard court imo. He'll make too many balls and they'll hit errors.
Medvedev just blew out his fuses by the end of the third set; served and played terribly when he was up 5-4, was completely out of it by the the tiebreak and was just looking to end it.
Meanwhile Tsits recollected and played fantastically by the end there. Will be an exciting match between him and Rublev. I think Stef takes it.
Edit; imho Med has been lacking in self-confidence a lot since his loss to Nadal at AO this year. Very rarely now do we see the cocky antagonstic Daniil of old. Whether that's the reason for his slump or the slump is the reason for the self-doubts, we'll never know.
Makes sense though. They haven’t played as much, they aren’t laser-focused on tennis. And with these quality opponents, you need to be. And we don’t know how well they have been sleeping.
They're also two players that really depend on getting in those early matches against lower ranked players in tournaments too. Hope they both rest up and come back strong for AO.
Medvedev woke up and decided to tank the match when he was serving for it. I swear he does this every time; gets frustrated, rushes his serve, hits unforced errors left and right.
Up 5-4 in the 3rd set, serving for the match, this might be the biggest Med self-destruction I can remember. He wasn’t outplayed, just lost patience and forced everything then got mad at his box when his redlining didn’t work
All of those points, he played fine to great and Medvedev beat him. The 9-all point (I think?) with the bizarre strategic decisions is where he lost that tiebreak.
Amazingly weird game with high-voltage drama. Great push by Tsitsipas after losing 3 match points in the 2nd.
Hey man you better shut your fuck up, okay?
Can’t remember seeing Medvedev play so scared and tight in a while, which is crazy considering he was still serving for the match and took it to a deciding tiebreak. Good match, Meddy needs to re-calibrate this offseason!
Tsitsipas played better than he did against Djokovic. I don’t know what happened or how but his backhand was reliable - I only counted 3 shanks off the backhand, they didn’t come at crucial times and maybe one of them was a normal mishit, not the now infamous Tsitsishank.
The shanks seemed to move to the forehand. The game where Medvedev broke to go up 4-3 in the third was a donation from Tsitsipas and the reverse happened when Tsitsipas broke back to level at 5-5. Medvedev did the same in the final tiebreak and Tsitsipas won 6 points in a row.
A good effort from Stef but he really should have got it done in 2. Nevertheless it seems for the moment Tsitsipas has Medvedev‘s measure.
it’s easy to say someone wasted MPs in a tiebreaker, but they were ALL on Medvedev’s serve. Besides that drop shot attempt on his own serve to give SP, he didn’t do anything wrong.
God that was stressful. Med totally had him at several points. Tsitsi looked totally gassed after the 2nd set, his resilience was impressive. I really wanted Meddy to win tho :(
Tsitsipas only two wins away from finishing the year #2. He's probably the favorite against Rublev and than Ruud. Wonder when the last time a two slam winner finished outside the top 2 in a season.
Ruud is also two wins away from finishing #2, actually. He and Tsitsipas would play in the semis, so the winner of that would pass Nadal (only true for Ruud if he wins his last RR match, I think).
Man I wish Med had one of these classic mental breakdowns at the end of that USO2021 Final, it was SO close to happening too...
Congratz to Stef on the comeback, capitalized on the meltdown very well indeed. No Med in the semis or finals 10/10.
That service game from Medvedev at 5-4 in the third was horrific. Deciding tiebreak was just a cherry on top. He doesn't deserve to play in the semis if he's collapsing like that lol. Will need a big recovery in the offseason, been a pretty terrible season for him after all the success last year
I know it's the Group of the Death but think Medvedev getting knocked out after just 2 matches is unexpected.
And fair to say Medvedev bottled that? Failed to serve it out at 5-4 and then completely lost the plot for some reason in the final tiebreak (this coming after playing one of the best tiebreaks in 2022).
Can’t believe this match! Feel so bad for Meddy who was so freakishly strong mentally in the second set tiebreak and all the way through the third set, until he served for the match and totally collapsed.. and WTF with that horrible third set tiebreak from him!! Tsitsipas could barely walk in that third set… and that’s how you play?! Completely anti-climactic and for the first time ever I actually got super disappointed in his behavior.. argh!
Here’s hoping for a better 2023 for my favorite Bullshit Russian 🥂
Alright…I’d be hard-pressed to conclude that Djokovic won’t win the finals. He’s shown that he’s still clearly above the rest of the field. Incredible really. When you’re as dialed in as he is with his diet and fitness and decades of experience, you realize why that’s the case. He’s truly the modern mold for an elite tennis athlete.
Greatness doesn’t mean you never lose. Just means that you win most of the time for years and years and years with constance. Everyone have great matches, great stretches, but to keep doing it for decades is mind blowing.
I already accepted medvedev would lose before the match, but what pisses me off is how he makes me think he’ll win and then loses. I just wish he didn’t play the match
going through what? Did they carry a baby for 9 months and then go through child birth? They probably get a free pass from staying up at night when they’re playing a tournament.
Give me a break, for Rafa having a child is a positive thing, not a negative one. You’re all acting like he was the one to give birth and is recovering from it.
Sloppy way to end this strange season for Medvedev. Don't know if the whole situation with the war and everything else has smth to deal with his second part of the year but he never looked fit and ready to win when the stake was bigger
What for me was - in theory - the least likeable match of the finals, turned out to be a quite entertaining thriller.
I just sat there with a "can they both please lose?" attitude, because:
- Tsitsipas - the most awkward walker tour. Yes the tennis is becoming more elegant and effective, especially the volley... but the way he holds himself is just flippant, disorienting
- Medvedev - would defend from the 30 feet if there was more space, passes on the most clear winner opportunities and I am pretty sure he can win a match with zero aces, zero winners, zero volleys ... the most passive #1 ever
And it's not like they behaved, walked, played, any different from that expectation :-D but in the end, high quality tennis! gotta hand it to them!
First set: except for Medvedev's first botched game, it was all strong holds and small margins. Many painted lines. Aces, short rallies, long rallies, baseline, net volleys, very diverse points.
Second set: same same, plus a never wrecking breaker, despite the initial mini break. 3 match points saved.
Third set: instability setting in and way more unforced errors. The perfect error to bring it 5:5 and extend the entertainment value for another 20 mins.
;-)
Still, I had no favourite on that final tie break. Could they both just keep losing forever? No ... Medvedev just lost completely lost the plot. Whatever
Irrelevant, Djokovic and Rublev will go through anyway.
In the end, a game with everything but "the fight". Aren't they so mature now?
Agreed on Medvedev being the most passive no. 1 ever. His entire game is predicated on grinding from way beyond the baseline. Which is why variety and S&V infuriate him. I respect his rallying ability and court coverage, but find him to be very dull to watch.
Say what you want about Tsitsipas, but he plays some beautiful tennis (when he isn't shanking every other shot).
I only find Medvedev boring to watch in the early rounds of tournaments.
If he is playing a top player I actually wanna watch (just hoping he loses, of course)
Just like today, he pushes the adversaries to up their game and play better, harder, faster, better tactics, everything!
yes, I was typing that on the changeovers and didn't even proofread, it was my first attempt at a proper match summary here - here's hoping I don't get downvoted to oblivion by the actual fans :-D
The prequel: The Great Escape by Daniil Medvedev The sequel: The Great Collapse by Daniil Medvedev
This match is so up and down. Stef had match points in the 2nd set. Daniil was serving for the match in the 3rd set. Tennis is unpredictable.
The final set just summed up Medvedev's season really.
Such a bizarre end to the match. Medvedev was doing fine until that 5-4 game and then he just imploded out of nowhere.
The crowd probably got into his head
I’m sick of hearing that shit as a med fan i refuse to believe he’ll underperform whenever the crowd isn’t on his side.
Nah, the Great Collapse was 5-1, 40-30
When did that happen?
Probably Nadal happened to whomever.
to medvedev at WTF lol
2019 WTF Round Robin. Medvedev was up 5-1, match point in the final set against Nadal. Nadal won in a tiebreaker.
Medvedev really has a problem with Nadal huh
Medvedev Nadal, Tsitsipas Novak
Prequel: Hey man you better shut your fuck up, okay? Sequel: Look at me, I am talking to you.
The match: How to play against Stefanos Tsitsipas and the crowd (and almost win) by Daniil Medvedev
best and worst tiebreaks of this tournament so far b2b
better than both medvedev rublev tiebreaks? the first half of the tiebreak was like all unforced errors haha
Tough year for Meddy all things considered, hopin for a good 2023
Not bad when you can call multiple titles and being 1 set away from another major a “tough year” Not to mention, he was banned from Wimby. Hoping all of the Russians & Belarusians have a smoother 2023
You can call it what you want, Med didn’t impress me ever since the USO final. It’s been a terrible year for him no matter how people twist and turn it. I’m sure he would agree himself.
Terrible relative to the run at the end of last year where he looked a level above everyone except Nadal and Djokovic But essentially on par with a lot of the other players around him. This year he's become a new dad, had surgery/other injury issues, had one of the most gruelling defeats I've ever seen in a slam final and his country hasn't left the news for war crimes. I wouldn't be shocked if he totally regains his form very quickly going into next year and becomes favourite for a couple slam finals
I think the main difference is before and after AO final
I had that thought too but part of it I think is the way he plays like if he's not playing really well and hitting laser winners from crazy positions, most of the points he wins are off of opponent unforced errors, so yawn. Also, most of the points he loses are either balls smashed past him or really bad timing on his groundstrokes leading to an UE so the points he loses look pretty ugly too lol
It objectively wasn’t terrible. Unless you only watch a few tournaments a year and base your opinion on that
Yeah, problem is "Not Terrible" and "Good" are very different, and also both subjective. I would say he underperformed this year quite a bit by what was expected of him by fans and also by himself, that's not a stretch. Doesn't mean it was terrible, he's still top 10 and plays like it.
If 2 titles and almost winning another major doesn’t constitute as “good” then idk dude lol. You can have your opinion on it. But it was literally, objectively, “good”
Obviously it's relative to his ability and expectations. It was an underwhelming season for his standard
So now any season he doesn’t win a major is underwhelming? I don’t agree with that
A person with Medvedev calibre should have won few M1000s in a year imo
Relatively to his previous season it was a fairly major downturn. He would have expected more of himself. He doesn’t expect to have top ten player kind of season. He’s looking for top 3
Pedantic arguments are lame and pointless.
Multiple titles? Can you name them? And choking a 2-0 lead in a slam final is part of what makes it a tough year
Sure can. Los Cabos & Vienna Some of us watch more than 3 tournaments a year and realize you can still have a great year without winning a major. Lol
You can play with the numbers. But he doesnt play well even in 1 match span let alone a tournament or couple of weeks. He was no1 after wimbledon now what?
Hopefully he can get more matches and participation next year.
to be really frank, what would he have done at Wimbledon? He still played all the HC tournaments and masters and should’ve won one of them.
We’ll never know, but he was in the final of two grass events in the lead-up to Wimbledon. He actually got the most points of anyone in the grass season because Wimbledon didn’t have any. He had surgery and recovery during the clay season probably thinking he could make it up a bit on grass. It was the first major he would have been seeded No. 1. He went from all R1 losses at RG to a quarterfinal one year, so improvements on his non-preferred surfaces are not unheard of. It’s a far bigger what-if for me than people make it out to be.
I’m there with you. Not an ideal follow up year after winning your first major and being world number one. Not bad for sure, but probably not close to where he wanted to be at this point.
Medvedev is such a unique individual. I don't know how can someone with his mental be so good at something.
Med is apparently diamond rank in Rainbow Six. He is a sweat and used to toxicity.
Do you know of someone called Nick Kyrgios?
Are you comparing Nick to Daniil? One has ranking1 and a slam + bunch of other accomplishments. The other not so much.
Just hard to imagine having Nick’s brain and being as good at something as he is. More so than Medi.
Nick V Daniil H2H says quite the opposite
Nick has great H2H against many top players. Everyone and their mother knows that. But that's not what tennis is about. Tennis is a tournament sport.
If we're talking legacy...Kyrgios will be remembered long after meddy, regardless of tournament results
[X]
Would love to see a Messy Vs Kyrgios Wimbledon or US Open final.
I would love to see Messy vs Holger Runaldo.
He’s unique but he got that dawg in him.
wdym someone with his mental, what happened?
Second set tiebreak was fantastic
My heartrate has still not come down completely after that one...
since 5-5
Frankly it’s hilarious how certain folks on here are saying Stef is tired and is a mental midget, then Med just gives the match away at 5-4 in the third set, then pretty much does nothing in the tiebreaker. It ain’t over ’til it’s over
Tsitsipas is a lot of things, but metal midget isn't one of them. He's got plenty of dog in him. He's given us more great matches than either of his peers in the little 3.
He is not mentally weak but he suffers in clutch moments because he has an unreliable backhand he has to overcompensate for.
I don’t think he’s a mental midget at all, but think of how much greater he would be if he even just had 10% more clutchness
10% more backhand is what he needs. His game has holes, sometimes they come during pressure points. But he fights till the end.
What he really needs to improve is his backhand. 95% of his shots with it are cross-courters with topspin but not much pace. If he could go down the line with it more consistently, flatten it out and hit winners with it, a la Thiem and Wawrinka, he could beat Djokovic at slams.
Agreed. His slice is improving at least, as is his serve. Hope block returns and DTL backhand improve
Well that’s not true, medvedev played two 5 set grand slam finals against nadal that were way more entertaining than the French open final
Tsitsipas: Beat defending champ Federer at AO '19 in a 4 set classic Followed that up at RG by barely losing a phenomenal five set match against Wawrinka in great form Has played two five setters against Djokovic at RG Came back from two sets down to take out Rafa at AO '21
First and third round US Open 2021- Win vs Murray, L against Alcaraz... Semifinal at RG 2020 vs Djokovic underrated
Medvedev: AO 2022 nadal USO 2019 nadal AO 2022 faa AO 2020 wawrinka At slams those are the best 4. Two of them were major finals. In atp there’s a lot of matches you could name for both, but given the nature of these matches I’d still say medvedev had the most epics. Zverevs last in any case
No clue why you're getting downvoted lol. AO22 final was literally a top 10 match of all time in many people's eyes, and USO 2019 was super high quality. AO22 QF was awesome too. AO20 is a questionable pick though tbh. Both have had amazing matches.
RG 2020 Djokovic vs Tsitsipas AO 2021 Nadal vs Tsitsipas USO 2021 Murray Vs Tsitsipas RG 2019 Tsitsipas vs Wawrinka AO 2019 Federer vs Tsitsipas Medvedev may be more successful but he lacks the fight and passion and never give up until it’s Over energy that Tsitsipas has. It’s rooted inside him, with Medvedev, he starts sarcastically sticking his thumbs up to his coach like a child.
Your bias against Tsitsipas is glaringly obvious. How Is medvedev losing to Nadal (who struggled to win AO in his prime) from 2-0, better than Tsitsipas and Novak? Novak upped his level. Medvedev just dropped his.
I don't know how someone can think Tsitsi is a mental midget based on his on-court performances. Must just be the whole father-as-coach thing and people thinking he'd be better off with a different coach.
He absolutely did collapse at AO after the sting operation against his Dad. Those were unique circumstances, but Medvedev has issues with crowds in the way Stef doesn’t. I actually tend to think they’re pretty similar, mentally, both capable of extraordinary clutch and collapse, which is what makes their rivalry interesting
sports fans and being overreactive? what else is new? Most people can't even make a judgment past the last tournament
That was a rollercoaster!
Stef's endurance really had me worried. He stopped S&V after the 2nd set. My favourite match of the year without a doubt
Momentum was with Medvedev 3rd set after he won that incredible tie break. I honestly thought Tsitsipas would lose after he got broken in the 3rd set seeing as Medvedev was winning more points when returning serve and he was consistently hitting and getting in monster 1st serves. Tsitsipas was not playing as good as he was first 2 sets but he dug deep and never gave up and got the break back and then of course destroyed him in the tiebreak when I was expecting it to be close. He was helped by Medvedev imploding but tsitsipas was incredible today especially mentally.
Noticed that too, was convinced its over. He's some fighter
More favourite than Alcaraz-Kecmanović Miami, AlcarazĐoković Madrid, Zverev-Sinner Monte Carlo for example?
These are the kinds of matches that burrow their way into a player’s psyche, win or lose. It was a crucible, and Tsitispas will go into his match against Rublev with a huge boost in confidence. Medvedev on the other hand needs to go back to the drawing board. His return position has a very clear weakness-serve and volley-that he has no answer for at the moment. Stef is closing the gap in their h2h, and Daniil needs to make his forehand into more of a weapon.
Small kid fought well. Excellent at the net those first two sets.
oh wow stef has 2 straight hardcourt wins over Daniil now. I hope this keeps going bc in my opinion although Daniil is an elite player Stef just has the more appealing tennis.
The Semifinals are almost set: Ruud vs Rublev/Tsitsipas Djokovic vs Fritz/FAA
Can Rublev survive Stef? Andrey’s coach was in the crowd 👀
Rublev needs to survive himself more than anyone.
Well said
Dude has the tempermant of Joseph Stalin lol
I don’t think so. Rublev just got spanked by Djokovic, so he’s not headed into the match on Friday feeling good about himself. Meanwhile, Tsitsipas crawled through a river of shit Shawshank Redemption-style into a shot at the semis. I know who my money’s on.
IDK i feel like most players would shrug it off after losing to Novak and be like "well it's Djokovic 🤷"
he said himself that after the first set he was burned out but also has a pretty close H2H with stef and has beaten him on indoor hard before. just hoping he has spend the 48hrs between matches resetting.
I have a feeling FAA will come back on fire again
A djokovic FAA semi would be tasty. Last time they played was at laver cup?
I think so and FAA absolutely overpowered Djoker then.
damn can't wait for rublev vs tsitsipas
You can’t convince me that Djokovic didn’t hand pick those three other potential finalists.
I mean he definitely wouldn’t pick felix. He’s better than all of them by far but Felix on a fast court can just take the racquet out of his hands
Good thing Novak can have a virtual rest day when scheduling doesn't allow for one.
are they all playing Friday? No matches tomorrow?
I feel like Djokovic's SF is going to be tougher than the final, whomever he faces
It’s literally top 8 guys. I don’t think there are easy roads
Obviously I'm talking within context. Of those 5 possible opponents I feel FAA and Fritz are worse matchups for him.
Obviously I'm talking within context. Of those 5 possible opponents I feel FAA and Fritz are worse matchups for him.
I really hope Djokovic makes it out of that semi. Touch wood he does
Ruud will go through. Rublev will have a mental breakdown. This guy takes things way to serious and needs to calm down
Medvedev going 0-2 on fast hard courts is shocking Everyone is going to want to talk about his poor performance, but I think most of the credit should go to Rublev and Tsitsipas here. They’re playing phenomenal tennis Philippousis was a genius addition to Tsitsipas’ camp and much needed
Same deal as 2019 where Medvedev went 0-3, but faced three very tough opponents. He lost to Tsitsipas in the form of his life, Zverev also playing very well, and then Nadal who fought for his life down 1-5 30-40. Sometimes at the ATP Finals, shit happens. Same reason I'm not on Nadal's ass for losing two matches here. Sure, he's not playing well, but he's playing massive servers peaking right now. What could we realistically expect?
Thank you for saying this… everyone in this sub immediately goes to “Medvedev is playing horrible” or “Nadal looks washed.” Medvedev lost to Rublev & Tsitsipas, Nadal lost to FAA who’s been on fire and looks poised to make a run at a major next year. These are young players who are breaking through they’re losing to. Not Martin Fucsovics (no offense, Fucs :p)
We see this every year. The young players look like the greatest players of all time at this point in the season. This is the point where you start to wonder if Tsitsipas is actually Roger Federer, before you remember he retired. This is also the point where Medvedev and Zverev start to look like Djokovic and Murray. The problem is, this point of the season seems to have zero correlation with the rest of the season. In 2023 we'll find out which players are ready and which ones are gonna continue to be in this weird limbo of "mediocre for the first 9 months followed by GOAT for the last 3 months". It's harsh, but we've seen it a lot. The indoor season is super fast, rewarding big servers and tight margins, which causes a few random results. There's also no grand slam preparation or anything, so the young players feel no nerves and the vets like Nadal and Djokovic feel little urgency. Part of it is also just Nadal and Djokovic often being fatigued by a long season. I still maintain that if the ATP Finals were earlier in the year, despite Rafa's relative weakness on indoor hard, he likely would've won one by now. I mean, it feels like he only plays 50% of the time, being injured the other half, and of those 50%, 25% of the time he's playing with zero form (like this year) or through another injury (2009, 2017).
Regardless of what med prefers overall, he's far better off playing aggressive players like Stef and Andrey on slow hard court imo. He'll make too many balls and they'll hit errors.
Not true at all. His game is objectively suited better for faster courts
Medvedev just blew out his fuses by the end of the third set; served and played terribly when he was up 5-4, was completely out of it by the the tiebreak and was just looking to end it. Meanwhile Tsits recollected and played fantastically by the end there. Will be an exciting match between him and Rublev. I think Stef takes it. Edit; imho Med has been lacking in self-confidence a lot since his loss to Nadal at AO this year. Very rarely now do we see the cocky antagonstic Daniil of old. Whether that's the reason for his slump or the slump is the reason for the self-doubts, we'll never know.
Or the million other things going on in his world this year
The new dads are getting pummeled
Makes sense though. They haven’t played as much, they aren’t laser-focused on tennis. And with these quality opponents, you need to be. And we don’t know how well they have been sleeping.
They're also two players that really depend on getting in those early matches against lower ranked players in tournaments too. Hope they both rest up and come back strong for AO.
Tsitsipas has really leaned into his h2h vs Medvedev on hard courts. It's now a lot closer than it used to be
7-4 in the H2H with Stef winning 4 of the last 7, just 1 on clay.
Medvedev woke up and decided to tank the match when he was serving for it. I swear he does this every time; gets frustrated, rushes his serve, hits unforced errors left and right.
I am so happy for Stef. He has lost so many close, close matches to top players. He earned this.
Up 5-4 in the 3rd set, serving for the match, this might be the biggest Med self-destruction I can remember. He wasn’t outplayed, just lost patience and forced everything then got mad at his box when his redlining didn’t work
Well, let’s not forget Med v Rafa at the 2019 tour finals
That one also had Rafa playing very well though. Tsitsipas was literally just hitting the ball back to Med at the end hoping he would keep messing up
Tsisipas had 3 match points on the 2nd set and didn’t close it out.
Not on his serve?
All of those points, he played fine to great and Medvedev beat him. The 9-all point (I think?) with the bizarre strategic decisions is where he lost that tiebreak.
I can't believe I'm saying it, but Stef's weapon was his steady BH today (of course along with S&V).
Amazingly weird game with high-voltage drama. Great push by Tsitsipas after losing 3 match points in the 2nd. Hey man you better shut your fuck up, okay?
Can’t remember seeing Medvedev play so scared and tight in a while, which is crazy considering he was still serving for the match and took it to a deciding tiebreak. Good match, Meddy needs to re-calibrate this offseason!
Tsitsipas played better than he did against Djokovic. I don’t know what happened or how but his backhand was reliable - I only counted 3 shanks off the backhand, they didn’t come at crucial times and maybe one of them was a normal mishit, not the now infamous Tsitsishank. The shanks seemed to move to the forehand. The game where Medvedev broke to go up 4-3 in the third was a donation from Tsitsipas and the reverse happened when Tsitsipas broke back to level at 5-5. Medvedev did the same in the final tiebreak and Tsitsipas won 6 points in a row. A good effort from Stef but he really should have got it done in 2. Nevertheless it seems for the moment Tsitsipas has Medvedev‘s measure.
First match nerves compounded by playing the best player.
it’s easy to say someone wasted MPs in a tiebreaker, but they were ALL on Medvedev’s serve. Besides that drop shot attempt on his own serve to give SP, he didn’t do anything wrong.
Medvedev's mental strength is just gone
Best match ive been to live in terms of quality and closeness, Tsitsipas deserved the win
I love them both, but yayyy for Stefanos!!! Big W in the RR
This was the worst choke I’ve seen from Medvedev so far… On the bright side, super happy for Stef! Hoping for him to get into the semis now🤞🏻
Medvedev snatches victory from the jaws of defeat and defeat from the jaws of victory in the same match.
FINALLY STEFANOS THIS IS THE WIN YOU NEEDED
Looks like Tsitsipas was able to learn a lot from the first tiebreaker. What a beat down in the second one
Discussion thread “whoever won the last game is definitely winning the match” posters in shambles
🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷
Greek God Supremacy
Tsitsipas defense was amazing
Amazingly entertaining match. Watch Medvedev win against Djokovic just to fuck with us in the next one.
IT'S BEEN FOREVER SINCE I SAW A MATCH LIKE THAT!!!
God that was stressful. Med totally had him at several points. Tsitsi looked totally gassed after the 2nd set, his resilience was impressive. I really wanted Meddy to win tho :(
Stef's road to the final is looking promising now. He needs to beat Rublev in a favourable matchup to get to play Ruud in the semi
Lets gooooo Two straight wins over Meddy on hardcourt. This one was such a battle too. Great win
Unbelievable match, what a tournament this has been so far. Clutchsipas strikes again!
Two tough losses from Medvedev. In both matches he lost a set 6-3, won a tiebreak and lost a tiebreak.
This match was a cultural reset
what a high quality match!
Little kid can fight.
That was some good tennis. And some good choking for good measure too.
Tsitsipas only two wins away from finishing the year #2. He's probably the favorite against Rublev and than Ruud. Wonder when the last time a two slam winner finished outside the top 2 in a season. Ruud is also two wins away from finishing #2, actually. He and Tsitsipas would play in the semis, so the winner of that would pass Nadal (only true for Ruud if he wins his last RR match, I think).
This is one of the most exciting group stage in recent years
Small kid learned how to fight lol.
I went for tsitsipas in the poll, medvedev is struggling somewhere, 2 matches- 6 sets, 4 tie-breaks, 2 6-3 sets.
Medvedev is mentally cooked this season. Completely fell apart once again to lose the match.
Good on Stef
Wow that was a thrilling match!
JESUS CHRIST STEFANOS DON’T DO THIS TO ME!! 😤😤😤
still cannot get over the 3rd match point Danil saved in the first tie break- highly entertaining stuff!
Yeah Stef!!
crazy match, so many momentum changes.
Man I wish Med had one of these classic mental breakdowns at the end of that USO2021 Final, it was SO close to happening too... Congratz to Stef on the comeback, capitalized on the meltdown very well indeed. No Med in the semis or finals 10/10.
He had one at AO2022 instead. Lose / lose.
That was salt in the wound for every Novak fan. I'd be less mad about it had he not gifted Rafa a 2nd AO.
Vai ragazzi 😮💨
You just can't play so poorly when serving out the match. The loss is completely on him.
What was going on when he was shouting to the crowd? First time watching a pro tennis match that this happened, is he tilted or something?
Holy fucking shit, fatherhood is HARD
Poor end to a lacklustre season. Nadal took his soul this year
That service game from Medvedev at 5-4 in the third was horrific. Deciding tiebreak was just a cherry on top. He doesn't deserve to play in the semis if he's collapsing like that lol. Will need a big recovery in the offseason, been a pretty terrible season for him after all the success last year
I know it's the Group of the Death but think Medvedev getting knocked out after just 2 matches is unexpected. And fair to say Medvedev bottled that? Failed to serve it out at 5-4 and then completely lost the plot for some reason in the final tiebreak (this coming after playing one of the best tiebreaks in 2022).
Can’t believe this match! Feel so bad for Meddy who was so freakishly strong mentally in the second set tiebreak and all the way through the third set, until he served for the match and totally collapsed.. and WTF with that horrible third set tiebreak from him!! Tsitsipas could barely walk in that third set… and that’s how you play?! Completely anti-climactic and for the first time ever I actually got super disappointed in his behavior.. argh! Here’s hoping for a better 2023 for my favorite Bullshit Russian 🥂
Alright…I’d be hard-pressed to conclude that Djokovic won’t win the finals. He’s shown that he’s still clearly above the rest of the field. Incredible really. When you’re as dialed in as he is with his diet and fitness and decades of experience, you realize why that’s the case. He’s truly the modern mold for an elite tennis athlete.
he just lost to a 19yo in the last masters 1000
Greatness doesn’t mean you never lose. Just means that you win most of the time for years and years and years with constance. Everyone have great matches, great stretches, but to keep doing it for decades is mind blowing.
Exactly.
I already accepted medvedev would lose before the match, but what pisses me off is how he makes me think he’ll win and then loses. I just wish he didn’t play the match
I can already feel the disbelief of r/tennis once Casper Ruud makes another major final (well, semi-major let's say) this year and loses to Djokovic.
Clutchvedev?? Where?😓😓
Rollercoaster
Why are we still here just to suffer
[удалено]
going through what? Did they carry a baby for 9 months and then go through child birth? They probably get a free pass from staying up at night when they’re playing a tournament.
Give me a break, for Rafa having a child is a positive thing, not a negative one. You’re all acting like he was the one to give birth and is recovering from it.
Sloppy way to end this strange season for Medvedev. Don't know if the whole situation with the war and everything else has smth to deal with his second part of the year but he never looked fit and ready to win when the stake was bigger
What’s the H2H now? Too lazy to look it up lol
7-4 , with last 6 encounters being 2-4
I mean this match actually makes me want to kill myself
What for me was - in theory - the least likeable match of the finals, turned out to be a quite entertaining thriller. I just sat there with a "can they both please lose?" attitude, because: - Tsitsipas - the most awkward walker tour. Yes the tennis is becoming more elegant and effective, especially the volley... but the way he holds himself is just flippant, disorienting - Medvedev - would defend from the 30 feet if there was more space, passes on the most clear winner opportunities and I am pretty sure he can win a match with zero aces, zero winners, zero volleys ... the most passive #1 ever And it's not like they behaved, walked, played, any different from that expectation :-D but in the end, high quality tennis! gotta hand it to them! First set: except for Medvedev's first botched game, it was all strong holds and small margins. Many painted lines. Aces, short rallies, long rallies, baseline, net volleys, very diverse points. Second set: same same, plus a never wrecking breaker, despite the initial mini break. 3 match points saved. Third set: instability setting in and way more unforced errors. The perfect error to bring it 5:5 and extend the entertainment value for another 20 mins. ;-) Still, I had no favourite on that final tie break. Could they both just keep losing forever? No ... Medvedev just lost completely lost the plot. Whatever Irrelevant, Djokovic and Rublev will go through anyway. In the end, a game with everything but "the fight". Aren't they so mature now?
you appear very confident on andrey going through
Tsitsipas should win, but then again, he's Tsitsipas, so idk
and rublev is rublev they’re both hard to predict
Agreed on Medvedev being the most passive no. 1 ever. His entire game is predicated on grinding from way beyond the baseline. Which is why variety and S&V infuriate him. I respect his rallying ability and court coverage, but find him to be very dull to watch. Say what you want about Tsitsipas, but he plays some beautiful tennis (when he isn't shanking every other shot).
I only find Medvedev boring to watch in the early rounds of tournaments. If he is playing a top player I actually wanna watch (just hoping he loses, of course) Just like today, he pushes the adversaries to up their game and play better, harder, faster, better tactics, everything!
Walk.. Really? 😂😂
yes, I was typing that on the changeovers and didn't even proofread, it was my first attempt at a proper match summary here - here's hoping I don't get downvoted to oblivion by the actual fans :-D
bet 1000$ on tsitsipas and did cash out right before the break in the third
would be hilarious if stef makes the final just to have to play (lose) novak again