Medvedev has repaired the serve and is crushing the opponents again! Russia became the leader of the group at the ATP Cup

Daniil Medvedev and Roman Safiullin brought our team an early victory over the Australian national team.

The Russian national team took the lead in Group B at the ATP Cup – 2022. The leader of our team finally “fixed” his serve and confidently defeated Australian Alex de Minor. And Roman Safiullin has won two out of two matches alone. Bravo guys!

The first match of the Russian national team at the ATP Cup – 2022 was dramatic. Our team’s debutant Roman Safiullin won a strong-willed victory over the Frenchman Arthur Rinderknesh. But the leader of the Russians – the second racket of the world, Daniil Medvedev – sensationally lost in the three-hour marathon to Hugo Umber. It was up to our team, playing without the three leading players who tested positive for coronavirus – Rublev, Karatsev and Donskoy – to decide the fate of the match in doubles. And Safiullin, together with Medvedev, completed this task! Thus, the Russian national team after the first round took the lead in Group B together with the Australian hosts, who unexpectedly defeated the Italian national team.

RTF President Shamil Tarpishchev writes the results of the first day for the Russians: “It’s surprising to me that Safiullin and Medvedev won a pair. Moreover, the difficult duet of the French won. Chances of the Russian national team to win? With the line-up that is announced for the ATP Cup, you can fight with almost any team. How it goes – we’ll see. That, despite the weakened composition, ours will present some kind of miracle. “

In the second round, the Russians won the Australian national team as rivals. It is important to note that the host of the tournament, Lleyton Hewitt, had a rather long bench in the capital. He can differentiate the composition depending on the circumstances. On the first day, No. 2 was Max Purcell, who lost to Yannick Sinner. And in the second round, James Duckworth was put up against Safiullin, who will celebrate his 30th birthday in a couple of weeks. James is currently ranked 49th in the ATP rankings. His best achievement was the final of the tournament in Astana-2021. Previously, Safiullin and Duckworth did not play with each other.

The match turned out to be tough and stubborn. First, James from the third break-point pushed the opponent and took the lead – 2: 0, but Roman followed the over-stubborn person from the 6th break-point and made a reverse break. However, soon, with the full support of his native audience, Duckworth was again able to break away – 5: 2. But the Russian did not think to give up. He adjusted the game on the serve, and on the reception, he often used the opponent’s mistakes, took 4 games in a row, but he could not serve for the set with a score of 6: 5, having made a double mistake at the most crucial moment. Safiullin started the tie-break with another double, but then he mobilized, caught up with the opponent and pressed on – 7: 6 (8: 6). In the second game, the Russian no longer experienced any problems in his serve, and on someone else’s time after time he sought break points, which James played for the time being. And yet, in the end, our tennis player made a break, and the fate of the match was decided – 7: 6, 6: 4 in 2 hours of struggle. By the way, thanks to two victories in this tournament over top-100 players, Roman earned 70 points and has already guaranteed himself the best place in his career. Prior to that, he reached a maximum of 151st position in the ATP rankings and so far has climbed intermediate to the 144th.

Next on the court in Sydney came the first numbers of their teams – Daniil Medvedev and Alex de Minor. Daniel is now the 2nd racket in the world, and Alex is the 34th. Previously, the tennis players met three times, and in all cases Medvedev won – in the final of Sydney-2018, Winston-Salem-2018 and Paris-2020. It seems that Daniil Medvedev was able to find his serve, which was “lost” in the first match of the ATP Cup – 2022 with the Frenchman Hugo Humbert. In a duel with Australian Alex de Minor, the Russian already acted clearly and confidently, especially if the first one passed. Daniel immediately took the lead with two breaks – 3: 0. However, then, on his mistakes, the Russian allowed his opponent to play one break. However, then Medvedev controlled the situation, and this small advantage was enough for him to confidently bring the set to victory – 6: 4. In the second game, the Russian felt like a relaxed and complete master on the court. As a result, he simply defeated de Minor, giving him only two games at the end of the set – 6: 4, 6: 2 in 1 hour and 20 minutes.

So Daniil Medvedev won the first victory of the season in singles and allowed the Russian national team to beat Australia ahead of schedule. Thanks to the success in the match with De Minor, the Russian overtook Djokovic in the number of single wins in the entire history of the ATP Cup. Novak, who missed the draw in 2022, remained with 8 victorious matches, while Daniel was 9. The current leader of the Spanish team, Roberto Bautista-Agut, has the same number.

Now the Russian national team has become the sole leaders of Group B and on January 6, in the final round of the preliminary stage, it will fight with the Italians. In case of a successful performance, our tennis players will advance to the semifinals, where they will get the best team from Quartet C, where Great Britain, Germany, USA and Canada play. The final will take place on Sunday, January 9th.