LONDON- Stefanos Tsitsipas opened his campaign for the 2019 Nitto ATP Finals with a straight sets 7-6 6-4 victory over the world no. 4 Daniil Medvedev. It was a tug-of-war between the pair, but Tsitsipas looked like the one in more control for the majority of the match. The 21-year-old Greek won 89% of his first serve points and did not allow Medvedev to have a single break point to regain some momentum in the match.<\/p>\n
“I’m proud that I brought myself in the situation today that I proved that I was better today. It’s also a challenge to keep doing the same work. Putting the same effort the next time I’m going to face him. I will know he will be much more prepared. Much more aware of what he has to do against me next time,” said Tsitsipas.<\/p>\n
“He’s a tough player. He’s a very difficult player to face [and] he’s not giving you an easy time when you’re out on the court. So it definitely means a lot. I knew that I had to work very hard. And had to be very much into the match, concentrated, focused, aware of every situation that I was facing.”<\/p>\n
The 21-year-old Greek had never beaten the Russian before and was 0-5 coming in head-to-head. Their most recent meeting was a month ago in Shanghai where Medvedev beat Tsitsipas<\/a> for the fifth straight time in straight sets 7-6 7-5.<\/p>\n “I knew that I was in good shape and in good form. [I] learned from my previous mistakes in Shanghai. I remember coming out of my match in Shanghai against him. [I said] to my coach that things are going to be different next time. And they did prove to be different.”<\/p>\n Though the pair appeared cordial at their handshake after the match, their frosty off-court relationship has been well documented. Especially after their confrontation at Miami earlier this year after the match at the net.<\/p>\n After Medvedev’s impressive hard-court run over the summer, Tsitsipas described Medvedev’s style as ‘boring’, and the Russian came back by saying he ‘cannot not take [Tsitsipas] seriously]<\/p>\n Tsitisipas commented on their relationship after his victory, “I respect him, for sure. That’s because he has been — he had a long way to come where he is right now. He’s a Grand Slam finalist, so that takes a lot of respect from me to him.”<\/p>\n “It’s not that I hate him. I guess — yeah, as he said, we will not go to dinner together.”<\/p>\n Main Photo:
\nEmbed from Getty Images<\/a>