As Alexander Zverev returned to Turin’s Pala Alpitour less than 24 hours after defeating Novak Djokovic to reach the title round at the ATP Finals, all the talk was of what had gone before. Would Zverev be affected by his two-and-a-half-hour duel against the world No 1 the previous evening? And just how would he bounce back against defending champion Daniil Medvedev, his opponent in the final, who had claimed his fifth successive victory over the German in a nail-biting group stage encounter only six days earlier?
Zverev delivered the answers in emphatic fashion. Yes, his tussle with Djokovic had left its mark – but only in that it emboldened him to believe that if he could beat the world’s best player, he could beat anyone. As for Medvedev, however chastening his recent record against the Russian – who had also bettered him in the semi-finals of the Paris Masters barely a fortnight earlier – Zverev had clearly learned the lessons.
It was a masterclass from the German, who broke early in both sets and served with such relentless authority and consistency that he did not face a break point all afternoon. There was no attempt to hit through Medvedev, but rather a policy of carefully measured aggression, Zverev going deep down the centre until the right opportunity arose to open up the court. His refusal to make the running threw down the gauntlet to the second seed, who was made to force the issue and committed some uncharacteristic errors as a result.
Medvedev cut a strangely subdued figure. There was no raging against the dying of a light that began to flicker as early as the third game, when a Zverev backhand clipped the net and died on break point. Nor was there any bickering with a crowd that, having greeted Zverev’s arrival on court with thunderous applause, barely acknowledged Medvedev’s entrance. Instead, the normally belligerent Russian was becalmed – reduced, perhaps, to the same state of slack-jawed astonishment as the locals, who could only marvel as Zverev landed 74% of his first serves and dominated the longer baseline exchanges, much as he had against Djokovic.
“You go into the match knowing that you’re playing one of the two best players in the world,” said Zverev, who with only the Davis Cup finals to play has a tour-leading 59 wins and six titles. “I knew that I had to play my best tennis to beat him. I did that today. I think I played a very good match. I’m happy with my level. I’m happy with the performance I had.”
Medvedev, whose plight was epitomised by a wayward service game at the start of the second set, could not say the same. First the Russian overpressed on a down-the-line backhand as he sought to disrupt Zverev’s rhythm from the baseline. Then came a double fault. At 30-30, Zverev seized the initiative with a swingeing crosscourt return, gobbling up the resulting short ball with a ferocious backhand winner. Medvedev, normally so lethal on serve, had won eight of the 10 break points he faced in Turin before the final, but this time there was to be no escape, the Russian gifting Zverev the advantage with a cheap forehand error.
“I think on this court the serve is really important,” said Medvedev. “Was only three aces [for me]. I didn’t feel amazing. Tough to say [why]. Maybe some tiredness of the body, maybe just mentally I was not 100% – not that I didn’t want to be. But definitely something was missing. I don’t have the answer, to be honest, what.
“It made a difference. Even when it was in, [my serve] was not really going on the line, it didn’t have this spark on it, if we can say like this. It wasn’t enough. Sascha is a great player to be able to break me two times – which actually, sometimes, is in a way not too bad. When you play in a Masters final on a fast surface, somebody serving like Sascha, it’s enough to win the match. For me, [we] can talk about many things, but the serve was definitely the key today, and he was better at it.”
Having won a second ATP Finals crown to go alongside the Olympic gold medal he clinched in Tokyo – not to mention his title wins at the Madrid and Cincinnati Masters, and a career-high ranking of three – it has been a season of significant progress for Zverev. The priority now, pending the outcome of an ATP investigation into domestic abuse allegations that he has consistently denied, is to win a first major.
“I kind of have succeeded on every single level, and there’s one thing missing,” said Zverev, who last year came within two points of winning the US Open final against Dominic Thiem. “I hope I can do that next year.”
Medvedev, for one, believes he can, although the US Open champion cautioned that it is by no means a foregone conclusion.
“He is a great player that is capable of beating anybody,” said Medvedev, who will no doubt already be shifting his sights to next year’s Australian Open, and the possibility of dethroning Djokovic as world No 1.
“He definitely can win a grand slam because it’s just obvious. But he’s not the only one. That’s where it gets tough. He was in the semis in the US Open, lost in five sets. Who knows, maybe [if] he would be in the final, he would beat me. It’s just a matter of every tournament being a different scenario, different surface. You need to win seven matches to be a grand slam champion. Is he capable? Yes. Is he going to do it? We never know.”
It is one more question for Zverev to ponder.