To upset Jannik Sinner, Daniil Medvedev (27) changes the system. He advances the rest line, he is aggressive from the first blow, he insists on the Italian’s backhand, who sees how the challenge becomes complicated. Sinner (22), generational partner of Carlos Alcaraz, the Italian who, together with the Murcian, must mark the next era of tennis, is slow to find his rhythm.
And yet, he finds it.
He finds the rhythm in time, and signs the comeback, who would have thought it at the opening of the match: Sinner wins by a double 3-6, double 6-4 and 6-3, in 3h44m.
In the post-Federer era, with Nadal in a yes but no and Djokovic on the couch, a skinny Italian grows up and sharp as a lightning rod, a former skier who had switched to tennis because he was too tall and who dismantles a Russian who plays without a flag because his country is at war with neighboring Ukraine and the sports world turns its back on him, a playful and proud Russian who already has a range of shots on the post.
Medvedev has played in six Grand Slam finals.
Only one has been awarded, the 2021 US Open.
¿Y Sinner?
In his first grand final, he embraces glory.
“I don’t know how to thank my parents for letting me choose my sport,” he said later, during his turn to speak on stage.
(…)
When previewing the match, Medvedev has thought of everything. He has innovated in strategy. He has spent two weeks subtracting eight meters from the baseline and now he is just one step away: he waits for the boat above and attacks it with fury. The formula eventually throws Sinner off balance, and it takes him a long hour to find himself.
Wasn’t this the Italian who on Friday, superbly, had devoured the immense Novak Djokovic?
(Until now, Sinner had barely dropped a single set in the entire tournament, just to Djokovic.)
By that moment, when the Italian finally reacts, the game has become uphill for him.
Medvedev has taken over the first set in 36 minutes and is now up 5-1 in the second, supported by his solid backhand and the solvency of his serve, tight and forceful, often over 200 km/h.
Even so, the Italian fights, tries things, talks with his box, varies the game and, in the end, finds a fissure in the rocky Medvedev: Sinner breaks his serve and, even giving up the second set, sows doubts in the mind of the Russian.
At 1h25m, the scene changes, it plunges into a new dimension: Medvedev has two sets in his favor, but he has entered his labyrinth, what a variable this is in tennis, and Sinner takes flight, equalizes the terms, calms down and it solidifies. He is once again stony, a red-haired Italian robot who does not express feelings, a perfect Meccano when the ball is set in motion.
Both tennis players embody the present of this universal sport.
They are tall, skinny and elastic, their arms are clubs that extend over the lines. They do everything, they don’t give their rival a single gap: the exchanges are stretched, the rallies go to 25 hits, they even reach 31.
Through long exchanges, Sinner tempers the Russian and modifies the circumstances: he takes over the third set, allowing himself to believe in himself.
He has never won a Grand Slam title, this is his first grand final (for the six that Medvedev has accumulated), but history is not great for him. Italy contemplates him: no Italian has ever won in Melbourne, there has never been an Italian so powerful on the circuit, with so many possibilities.
(Until now, only one other Italian had won a Grand Slam: Adriano Panatta, at the 1976 Roland Garros).
¿The Medvedev?
Medvedev begins to evoke scenes from the past.
You see it right there, in the Rod Laver Arena, two years ago, in 2022.
He had taken two sets from Rafael Nadal, two sets up he was, and then the man from Manacori had reacted, had turned the adventure around and had projected himself towards his 21st Grand Slam title: temporarily, Nadal was placed as the leader masculine in the mad race for the greats.
(And meanwhile, Novak Djokovic was the plagued one, a tennis player extradited from Australia for having refused to get vaccinated).
That episode in 2022 still hurts Medvedev, it hurts his soul, and that’s why he scrambles on the court and prepares tricks. He goes to the bathroom in the third set exchange, and then calls the doctor, tries to get the match back on track but fails, and gives up the fourth set and goes to the bathroom again.
It’s 3h06m into the game and Sinner now seems to be the master.
Medvedev’s gaze darkens, his legs become weak, the rest falls short. The Russian without a flag melts, now converted into a fan, he runs from one side to the other, resigned before the brilliance of the Italian, he loses the serve in the sixth game and already surrenders to the redhead who has returned from the catacombs to stamp his name on the Grand Slam record.
Definitely, a new era is emerging in tennis.
With the Next Gen drawn (Medvedev, Zverev, Rublev, Tsitsipas…), Djokovic was bewildered, these are the times of Alcaraz and Sinner, or so the logic of the present dictates.
