Daniil Medvedev earned a personal-best 64th tour-level win of the season on Saturday when he defeated long-term rival Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-4, 7-6(6) to reach the Erste Bank Open final for the second consecutive year.
The top seed played with consistency and looked comfortable for large periods against Tsitsipas, standing deep behind the baseline to control the tempo of rallies at the ATP 500 event. Medvedev committed just 10 unforced errors and saved all three break points he faced to reach his 36th tour-level final and ninth of the season after one hour and 44 minutes.
“I served well throughout the whole match,” Medvedev said. “In general I am happy with how I served and put pressure on him on a lot of points. I had a lot of opportunities and he played well on them also. Generally, this pressure paid off at the end of the match.”
The 27-year-old, who improved to 9-4 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series against the Greek, has now recorded the most victories on Tour in 2023, surpassing Carlos Alcaraz (63-9). He will aim to clinch his 65th win and sixth title of the season when he meets Jannik Sinner or Andrey Rublev in Sunday’s final.
“I have played both of them in finals. Jannik already three times and Andrey once,” Medvedev said looking ahead to the final. “They have had amazing years. Jannik is finishing really strong so will be interesting to see how the match goes.”
If Medvedev successfully triumphs in Vienna, it will be his first successful title defence on the ATP Tour. He has won 20 tour-level singles crowns but has never won a single event more than once.
In a high-quality semi-final, both hit with consistent aggression. Medvedev struck 22 winners to Tsitsipas’ 29, while the World No. 3 was impressive on serve, winning 84 per cent (41/49) of points behind his first delivery. With little to separate them in the second set, two forehand errors from Tsitsipas from 6/6 in the tie-break proved decisive.
2021 – 63 victories
2023 – 6⃣4⃣ victories (so far )A career-best milestone for @DaniilMedwed as he pips Tsitsipas 6-4, 7-6(6) to book a final spot@ErsteBankOpen | #erstebankopen pic.twitter.com/xGtd4MRqGW
— ATP Tour (@atptour) October 28, 2023
Medvedev is trying to win his third ATP 500 title of the year and third on hard courts, after clinching trophies in Rotterdam and Dubai. Earlier this week he survived three-set tests against Grigor Dimitrov and Karen Khachanov but looked close to his best against Tsitsipas.
Tsitsipas was aiming to reach his fourth final of the season, having triumphed in Los Cabos earlier this year. The Greek leaves Vienna sixth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin on 3,875 points, 820 points clear of ninth-placed Taylor Fritz, who is outside of the cut. The Top 8 players will qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals, to be held from 12-19 November. Medvedev has already stamped his ticket for Turin.
