World No. 5 Daniil Medvedev yesterday ended Casper Ruud’s giant-killing spree with a 6-3, 7-6 (8/6) victory to seal Russia’s place in the ATP Cup quarter-finals.
The US Open finalist continued his ominous form ahead of the Australian Open, hitting 34 winners and 13 aces in the contest that lasted 1 hour, 33 minutes.
Medvedev wrapped up the tie for unbeaten Russia ahead of the doubles.
Photo: AFP
“Maybe the score doesn’t say everything about the match, because it was really close and both of us could have won,” Medvedev said of his first-ever clash against Ruud.
The towering Russian was particularly impressive at the net, winning 14 of 19 points.
“Against Casper, I knew I had to finish some points at the net,” he said. “I knew I had to be aggressive and I think it helped me a lot.”
Group D winner Russia advanced to the knockout stages in Sydney, while Norway’s surprising run, which started with a stunning upset of the US, ended.
Ruud, whose father, Christian, is Norway’s captain and his coach, on Sunday upset Italian world No. 12 Fabio Fognini after beating 19th-ranked John Isner of the US two days earlier.
The 21-year-old continued to impress, but was no match for Medvedev, who has steadily built his form after victories over Fognini and Isner.
Ruud is a product of Rafael Nadal’s tennis academy in Mallorca and has received high praise from the Spaniard.
Nadal on Monday said that a bright future awaits the “amazing” Ruud, who has proved a giant-killer at the ATP Cup, despite being slammed as “boring” by Nick Kyrgios.
The 21-year-old, a product of Nadal’s tennis academy in Mallorca, has beaten top-20 players John Isner and Fabio Fognini to make his mark at the international teams tournament in Australia.
Ruud was catapulted into the spotlight last year after Kyrgios threw a temper tantrum during their match at the Italian Masters, hurling a chair on to the court.
Ruud later blasted the combustible Australian as an “idiot” and “totally crazy,” prompting Kyrgios to fire back that he would rather “watch paint dry” than “boring” Ruud.
“I saw [Ruud] playing good in the off-season — practicing every single day in Mallorca — and he was practicing strong and very well,” said Nadal, the world No. 1 and 19-time Grand Slam winner.
“He’s amazing and I think that in the past he had some trouble, because he used to prefer to play on clay much more than hard,” Nadal said. “But that’s something that, for me personally, makes me happy, because he’s a great guy.”
Alexander Zverev’s terrible run of form showed no signs of abating yesterday after the German surrendered meekly to Canada’s Denis Shapovalov 6-2, 6-2.
Canada won the tie in Brisbane 2-1 to keep alive their hopes of reaching the inaugural event’s quarter-finals after Shapovalov teamed with Felix Auger-Aliassime to win the deciding doubles contest.
The pair edged Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) in a high-quality match.
Shapovalov cruised to his win in just 70 minutes to level the tie after Jan-Lennard Struff had earlier got Germany away to a winning start with a 6-1, 6-4 win over Auger-Aliassime.
Zverev had to beat Shapovalov to keep Germany in the hunt for a quarter-final spot in Sydney later this week, but Shapovalov took control from the outset against an opponent whose serve was misfiring and whose body language suggested a player badly out of form.
The world No. 7 conceded that he had major problems ahead of the first Grand Slam of the year.
His serve has been especially poor this week. He made only 54 percent of his first serves against Shapovalov and 45 percent against Tsitsipas.
“Generally I’m not playing good, so there’s a lot of things that I still need to improve — but it’s the start of the season,” Zverev said.
With Germany failing to reach the quarter-finals, there is no chance for Zverev to get any more match practice before the Australian Open.
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