Home favourite Jannik Sinner became the first Italian player to reach the title match in the season-ending ATP Finals as he beat Russian Daniil Medvedev at a raucous Pala Alpitour on Saturday.
The 22-year-old soaked up everything Medvedev threw at him and emerged with a 6-3 6-7(4) 6-1 victory.
Sinner, the only player to win all three group matches, will face either world number one Novak Djokovic or number two Carlos Alcaraz in Sunday’s final.
Medvedev was seeking to reach his 10th final of an impressive season and had the first opportunity to secure a break of serve at 1-1 in the opening set, but Sinner stood firm.
Sinner secured a decisive break in the next game as some errors flew off the Medvedev racket.
Both players were rock-solid on serve in the second set with only one break point, saved by Sinner, on the way to a tiebreak.
Medvedev, sticking relentlessly to his heavy baseline game, grabbed the initiative and levelled the contest when Sinner sent a forehand over the baseline.
Sinner got his nose in front early in the decider when Medvedev double-faulted and moved to the brink of victory with another break to storm into a 5-1 lead.
The world number four brought up three match points with a superb backhand winner and sealed victory at the first attempt.
After losing his first six matches against Medvedev, Sinner has now won three in a row against the Russian.
Cyprus Mail on Google News