Alexander Zverev hasn't had too much success against Daniil Medvedev recently, but he got it done at the 2023 Cincinnati Masters in three sets.
As you might have expected, this match was a pretty close one. Both players have a good serve, which should have given them plenty of free points. It kind of worked out, but neither served exceptionally well, as Medvedev even forced it a bit too much.
Zverev played a really solid opening set doing everything right and taking it 6-4. The crucial thing for him was winning his second serve points thanks to Medvedev kind of stepping back and waiting for mistakes. He could have been way more aggressive, but he opted not to.
Zverev also played the crucial rallies better, converting a break point, while Medvedev didn't. That was the difference, really, nothing spectacular at all. The second set started off with Medvedev pressing a bit more, forcing an early break point, but once again, he failed to convert it.
It was a huge problem for the Russian because he got plenty of chances but never converted them. He would get another one at 2-3 after Zverev started to miss in bunches, and another miss gave Medvedev the break. Unfortunately, he gave it back right away with far too loose play.
He tends to do that quite often, just approach things too casually, but that's part of his charm. He would get another golden chance at 6-5 in the second set with Zverev badly missing again. Three consecutive set points for Medvedev, and he used the first one to win the set.
The approach to wait for Zverev to miss worked as the German totalled 15 unforced errors, far more than Medvedev's 3. The final set opened with neither player particularly struggling to hold serve with Zverev generally looking more shaky.
Even though Medvedev was the better player for much of the final set he crumbled first producing one of his signature aloof games to lose the serve at 4-4 in the final set. Zverev won his service game and the match was over.
The final score was 6-4 5-7 6-4 for the German.
0 Comments