Italian Open Highlights: Tsitsipas LOST TO Medvedev: Daniil Medvedev defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas 7-5, 7-5 at the Italian Open 2023 on Saturday, 20th May 2023. With the win, he entered his maiden final in the clay court tournament. He will now face Holger Rune in the summit clash. Follow Italian Open 2023 LIVE updates on InsideSport.IN
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Medvedev had not won a match in three appearances in Rome prior to this year, but he delivered a rock-solid display in a rain-affected semi-final. He and Tsitsipas were twice interrupted by rain in Rome during a match that started at 4:25 p.m. local time and finished just more than five hours later. In between, Medvedev converted all four break points he earned to improve his ATP Head2Head lead against the Greek to 8-4.
“I enjoyed playing today,” said Medvedev. “It was very tough with the rain delay, I warmed up like six or seven times, but actually sometimes it can throw you off, you can be a little bit angry [about] the situation. Today, I don’t know why, I was just kind of laughing.
“There were so many moments where I was with my coach, [and he said], ‘OK they are opening the court, let’s go warm up’. We [went] there, started warming up, [and received a] text: ‘The rain is heavy, stop warming up’. We were laughing about this, we were actually OK. [We said], ‘OK, we [will] play’, and that’s what we managed to do.”
Sunday’s final will be Medvedev’s ninth Masters 1000 championship match but just his second clay-court ATP Tour final, and his first since Barcelona in 2019. Should he triumph, Medvedev will rise above Novak Djokovic to become No. 2 in the ATP Rankings on Monday.
Italian Open LIVE: Daniil Medvedev an Stefanos Tsitsipas to meet in blockbuster semifinal clash