Daniil Medvedev played a pretty loose match to lose to Taylor Fritz, which wasn't ideal for him, but he did enough to ensure that his team still won the tie.
Daniil Medvedev and Taylor Fritz stepped up to play a very crucial tie between the Eagles and Falcons. The format of this event has every tie between teams consisting of five matches. Each match is basically one set, and the games are counted as points.
The team with the most points after five matches win the tie at the 2023 World Tennis League. Because Medvedev's teammates did such a good job before, his team had a six-point lead before this match.
He didn't need to win the match to ensure that his team won, but he needed to win a few games. Because of the format, Medvedev had the chance to lose the final match, which would trigger the 'overtime'.
In the overtime, he would only need to win one more game, which ultimately happened. Fritz won 6-3, making the score 21-18, triggering the overtime where Medvedev needed to win one more game to seal the win while Fritz needed 4 games.
Due to having that advantage, Medvedev played quite a bit loose at times, which isn't that atypical, but it really cost him the match. The crucial part for him was making sure he won enough games.
Had he lost easily, like 6-1, then the overtime would have been a bit more complicated, but he did enough to secure the win for his team.
What is interesting about this particular matchup is that Fritz bested him during the offseason last year as well. It happened at the Diriyah Cup in Riyadh, and now Fritz did it again.
He just had his day serving, hitting five aces overall and winning the majority of points behind his first serve. Medvedev dropped his serve early and never quite found the level needed to break back.
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