Daniil Medvedev will overtake Novak Djokovic as world quantity two after finishing his clay-court transformation with victory over Holger Rune to win the Italian Open.
Medvedev had by no means beforehand received a match in Rome and had made clear his dislike of clay however the Russian will probably be seeded second at Roland Garros and has put himself proper within the combine for what may very well be an open event.
Rune is at his finest on the floor and had knocked out Djokovic and Casper Ruud to achieve the ultimate however Medvedev twice got here again from a break all the way down to clinch a 7-5 7-5 victory.
Medvedev claimed the primary break of a decent first set within the twelfth recreation and received the ultimate 4 video games of the match after Rune had led 5-3.
Speaking on Amazon Prime Video, Medvedev stated: “I always want to believe in myself and I always try to do my best, I want to win the biggest tournaments.
“At the same time, I honestly didn’t believe much I can win a Masters 1000 on clay in my career because usually I hated it, I hated playing on it, nothing was working.
“Before this tournament, already in Madrid and Monte-Carlo I was feeling not too bad. Coming here, I felt amazing in practice. But then you need to play the toughest opponents in the world and I’m really happy that I managed to do it and prove to myself and everybody that I’m capable of doing it.”
Medvedev remains to be not utterly received over by clay, although, including: “(It’s a) friendship. I don’t think I love it, I love hard courts, my only love – in tennis. But I definitely like clay courts much more now.”
Rune will climb to a brand new profession excessive rating of six, and the 20-year-old instructed reporters within the Italian capital: “I think I was very nervous stepping into the match.
“Obviously I came through from a great match yesterday. Maybe I put too many expectations on myself, even though I told myself not to. He played great. He played really solid from the back of the court.
“Paris is the main goal of the clay season. I think I had the matches that I needed to be as well prepared as possible. Now it is the last small things I want to do better the next time I play in these big matches.”
Meanwhile, Britain’s Jack Draper returned from damage with a 6-2 6-3 victory over Alexandre Muller within the first spherical of the ATP Tour occasion in Lyon.
Draper has performed just one event since March due to an belly downside.
