Stefanos Tsitsipas Knocks Out Daniil Medvedev From ATP Finals To Give Djokovic Victory

Stefanos Tsitsipas beat Daniil Medvedev 6-3 6-7(11-13) 7-6(7-1) in their ATP Finals match on Wednesday to stay alive in the group stage while eliminating Medvedev from compete for a semi-final - final venue. With his victory, Tsitsipas also made Novak Djokovic the winner of the red group while the Greek star will now face Andrey Rublev on Friday with second place in the semi-finals on the line.

Medvedev and Tsitsipas were chasing redemption in Turin after losing their opening group matches on Monday, and both men were in danger of being knocked out of the semi-finals entirely depending on the result of their 11th career encounter. The Russian led their head-to-head by seven wins to three losses, but the second seed won their last encounter in Cincinnati, setting the stage for a dramatic showdown.

It was the Greek player who started strong, beating Medvedev in the world No.5's first service game to take a 3-0 lead. And the first break proved crucial as both men continued to exchange service catches without even making it to another two-legged game before Tsitsipas won the first set 6-3 in 33 minutes.

The pair continued their routine serve catches until the second set reached a tiebreaker, with both men seeing nearly identical serve stats as Medvedev stepped up after losing the first match. And it was the fourth seed who won the first mini-break when Tsitsipas simply failed to get the ball over the net in an unlucky net cord, but Medvedev lost his lead after sending a long forehand to bring the second seed level 4-4 before making another error to give Tsitsipas the lead, staring at his box puzzled.

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It was the 24-year-old's turn to send the ball in to provide another mini-break and he was unable to capitalize on three match points as Medvedev saved the third after a incredible rally, putting the crowd on their feet. before stealing the second set 7-6 (13-11) to stay alive in what was the third longest tiebreak in ATP Finals history.

There were more routine holds to start the final set until Tsitsipas hit two errors in a row to get broken and go down 3-4. He managed to carve out a break point in the very next game, but the Russian sent an ace onto the pitch to stay alive and put himself one game away at 5-3 after being on the brink of the elimination in the deciding game. While serving for the match at 5-4, Medvedev suddenly double faulted twice followed by a series of errors to get broken before the match ended in a tiebreak.

Tsitsipas received an immediate mini-break as Medvedev sent the ball wide, and the world No.5 failed to get a bunt over the net to give the 24-year-old a lead 3-0. The second seed suddenly found herself with six extra match points exactly 57 minutes after winning her first as mistakes kept coming from Medvedev, but the Russian saved her again. With his fifth match point on his own serve, Tsitsipas eventually served up a three-set victory in two hours and 21 minutes to move one victory away from the semi-final.

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