Alexander Zverev clinches second Nitto ATP Finals title

The in-form German player registered a straight-set victory over Daniil Medvedev to reign supreme in Turin.

Alexander Zverev clinches his second Nitto ATP Finals title; Credit: Twitter@atptour
By Karthik Raman | Nov 21, 2021 | 3 Min Read follow icon Follow Us

Alexander Zverev ended a memorable 2021 season in style, bagging his second Nitto ATP Finals crown. He got past World No.2 Daniil Medvedev 6-4, 6-4 in Turin on Sunday. After defeating World No.1 Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals, the German backed it up against Medvedev, producing another impressive performance. The 24-year-old stepped inside the court to make life difficult for the Russian, who sat deep behind the baseline, as he clinched the win after 75 minutes. Notably, Zverev has become only the fourth player in the tournament’s history to register semi-final and final victories over the Top two players in the FedEx ATP Rankings. 

The World No.3 fired seven aces and hit 22 winners. He impressively did not face a break point in his memorable victory over the Russian. It is to be noted that the 24-year-old had fallen to Medvedev in the round-robin stage. However, he has repeated what he achieved in London in 2018 when he won the title by reversing a round-robin loss to the player he faced in the championship match. Three years ago, the third seed beat Djokovic to clinch his first season finale trophy.

Zverev, who has now secured a tour-leading 59 victories this season, has ended a five-match losing streak against Medvedev. Thereby, he levelled their ATP Head2Head series at 6-6. This season has been one to remember for the German. The World No.3 had captured two ATP Masters 1000 crowns in Madrid and Cincinnati earlier this year before astonishingly winning the Tokyo Olympic singles gold medal. The 19-time tour-level champion also won in Acapulco and Vienna.

Zverev in control against Medvedev 

Starting on the front start, Zverev dominated the longer rallies, making it difficult for Medvedev to get a grip of the match. Having broken in the third game, the 24-year-old maintained his accuracy on serve throughout the opening set. He won 89 per cent (16/18) of points behind his first delivery to take a healthy lead in the match.

Backed by the vocal crowd inside the Pala Alpitour, the German made full use of his momentum to secure a break immediately after the second set started. Zverev’s powerful serving was too much for Medvedev to deal with, as the German ended the season with an impressive title triumph.

Herbert-Mahut win second ATP Finals doubles crown

Frenchmen Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut on Sunday secured their second Nitto ATP Finals doubles title in three years. The third seeds avenged their Red Group loss to second-seeded American Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury of Great Britain this week with a final triumph. The final scoreline read 6-4, 7-6 as the Frenchmen clinched the victory in one hour and 32 minutes at the Pala Alpitour in Turin.

“It is an amazing feeling winning here for a second time,” said Mahut. “We lost to them in the round robin, when they played amazing, and today we knew we had to play our best level. I think we played our best match of the week. Finishing the season like this is a great achievement.”

Meanwhile, Herbert said: “They were playing really well on our break points, but we were pushing hard the whole match. We went to the tie-break and for sure there was a bit of stress, but Nico de-stressed me with a great return on the first point. Nico is playing better and better with age.”





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