Cincinnati 21 August : Stefanos Tsitsipas will take on a resurgent Borna Coric in the Western & Southern Open final after the Greek defeated the top seed Daniil Medvedev in the semifinals.Medvedev had a 7-2 head-to head record with world number seven Tsitsipas prior to the match but the Greek won with 7-6 (8-6) 3-4 winning score of 6-3 in 2 hours 23 minutes, DPA reports.
Tsitsipas net play was the main factor in the win and he won 27 of 36 points in net play while he was able to win 82 percent of his serve points in the initial set.He scored 33-28 winners, while Medvedev allowed 35-27 unforced mistakes with the Russian also committing 11 double faults.This included the crucial break in the third set.
The victory on Saturday evening will mean that Tsitsipas will play in the final in Cincinnati for the first time after having defeated in the semi-finals in 2020 and 2021.Medvedev was the winner of the opening match of the match, but Tsitsipas took advantage of the situation to tie the score at 3-3 after which he was able to overcome an unforced set point against Medvedev Russian to win the tiebreak with his first chance.
The Russian gained control in the second set, gaining 5-1 lead, aided by a series of double faults by Tsitsipas before he returned to 5-3 with Medvedev in a 0-40 deficit on serve.
Both players were stricken by periods of loss of concentration.
The world’s top player kept his cool to win the second set and level the match, even though he was clearly losing some of his momentum.
The third set was interrupted by fireworks that appeared to have impacted Medvedev more than Tsitsipas, with the Russian making several costly double faults and one of them gave the Greek the lead of 4-2.Tsitsipas made the most of it to seal the victory.
Coric was already assured of his place in the final, which was the second Masters final of his career with a dominant victory in 6-3, 6-4 against the ninth seed Cameron Norrie.
The Croatian has had a great week in Cincinnati and has reached the achievement of a major point following shoulder surgery earlier in the year.
He was able to topple Rafael Nadal and only lost one set to date.
Coric was in trouble in the beginning, trailing 3-1 in the first set, but quickly reacted to win the first set.
The 25-year-old was able to follow that up, racking up eight consecutive points to take an advantage of 4-2 in the second set.He was able to complete the win in just one hour and 31 seconds.Coric was crowned with 7 aces and 22 winners.
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