Daniil Medvedev will become World No. 1 on Monday again, but on Sunday, he lost in the Libema Open final to a player ranked way outside of the Top 100.
Medvedev started his 2022 grass campaign at the Libema Open in Den Bosch, and he had a really solid week. The Russian won a couple of good matches to find himself in the final of the event ATP 250 event, in which he played native player Tim van Rijthoven.
Van Rijthoven made a sensational run to the final, even though he is not ranked highly at the moment. The Dutch player is currently World No. 205, which means he is among the lowest-ranked players to reach an ATP final, but he played well the entire week and deserved to find himself in the final match.
Even so, very few gave him a proper chance to actually win the event because he was playing against one of the best players in the world, who will become officially the best player in the world on Monday again.
Speaking ahead of the final match, the Dutch sensation admitted that he didn't even expect to receive a wild card for the tournament, let alone reach the final a week later.
"I don’t know where to start. I got the wild card here which was already a surprise for me. I was just happy to play one or two matches at least. To be in the final is just incredible, I have no words."
The match itself was a bit uncharacteristic for the Russian player because Medvedev basically never stood a chance. While his playstyle is such that matches like this happen, nobody really saw it coming, at least not in this way.
The Dutch player won the opening set 6-4 and then smashed Medvedev in the second 6-1 to win the title. It was a stunning result for the native player, whose win was heavily celebrated in the stands. Medvedev was graceful in defeat, serenading his opponent with kind words after the match.