One week after beating him at the Vienna Open, Daniil Medvedev was beaten by Grigor Dimitrov at the Paris Masters.
Medvedev has had some interesting outings in Paris in recent years. Both this year and last year, the Russian was done early, with Dimitrov proving better this time around. They've played a couple of times already, and quite often, Dimitrov gave him a lot of trouble.
That happened last week in Vienna, but the Russian turned it around. This time around, Dimitrov came out on top in a very close match. The Bulgarian won the opening set just like last week behind very aggressive play.
He had 13 winners, far more than Medvedev, which proved enough 6-3. The Bulgarian has generally had a lot of success in rallies against Dimitrov, which is surprising. The second set saw Medvedev step up his aggressive s to counter Dimitrov, and it worked out in his favour.
He jumped out to an early lead but got broken a few games later, only actually to win the set in the tiebreak. The Russian had earlier chances to finish off the set but ultimately had to settle on the tiebreak.
The final set was played better than Dimitrov. There is no denying it. He had some early break points, and while he wasted them, the Bulgarian kept pushing hard, eventually getting the break midway through the set.
Dimitrov would fail to serve out the match at 5-3 but did it in the tiebreak with a really clutch performance. The final score was 6-3 6-7(4) 7-6(2) for the Bulgarian, who served better all match, and that was the crucial difference.
Medvedev didn't have the serve he had last week in Vienna, and it made things much harder for him. In rallies, Dimitrov had the upper hand, finishing with twice as many winners as Medvedev.
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