ATP Finals: Alexander Zverev beats Daniil Medvedev in the final and crowns himself King of Turin

“It was an amazing year with a perfect end,” said Zverev after the final on the “Sky” microphone. Brother Mischa, who was right next to them, particularly praised the new champion’s “incredibly clever” game: “He tactically defeated him because he wasn’t the fresher player.”

In fact, Medvedev entered the game with a number of supposed advantages.

The 25-year-old was on the pitch for a much shorter time than Zverev in the semifinals the day before and on top of that had more than seven hours more time to regenerate.

Zverev manages an early break in the final

Nevertheless, it was Zverev who got off to a better start in the final. After an early break in the third game, he increased to 3-1 on his own serve.

“The decisive factor is the good return from Alex, because I mean the length of the strokes. This enables him to go all out with the forehand,” said three-time Davis Cup champion Patrik Kühnen on “Sky”.

It is also remarkable that Zverev had clear advantages in the long rallies. At 4: 2 he had won twelve of the 13 rallies that went over five strokes.

After 34 minutes, Zverev secured the lead in a sovereign manner. Medvedev didn’t have a break ball and was also behind on the winner’s record with 1: 9 – numbers that spoke volumes.

Zverev praises Kühnen: “wonderful rhythm”

“What I like best about Zverev is that he is focused, that he stays with himself and that he has a wonderful rhythm when he serves,” said Kühnen.

It got even worse for Medvedev: The US Open winner had to give up the first service game in the second set – a deficit that he chased afterwards without success.

Zverev didn’t let anything go wrong with the service and did not allow the world number two in the entire encounter to break the ball. Sometimes he served over the second serve at up to 217 km / h.

Zverev: Ace on the second serve decides the final

Almost consequently, Zverev ended the final after 1:15 hours with an ace on the second serve. For his victory, the Hamburg native received 1.9 million euros in prize money.

“Every time we meet, we prepare differently, try to do things differently. I had the feeling that he did that and I tried it too – but I couldn’t find an answer because he served too well , concluded Medvedev.

“It was a great final against someone who I was previously defeated five times in a row,” said Zverev, saying goodbye to the Maldives: “This is something very special and I’m super happy to be going on vacation with this victory can.”

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