Medvedev : The Russian national team began their performance at the ATP Cup in Sydney. I started with a victory over France, but it was incredibly difficult. Roman Safiullin won his meeting against Artur Rinderknekh (2: 6, 7: 5, 6: 3), but Daniil Medvedev lost to Ugo Umber (7: 6, 5: 7, 6: 7). Everything was decided in a doubles match, but there the unplayed Dana and Roman still managed to snatch the victory. MK-Sport tells the details.
The start of the season is always unpredictable. The players are unstable, they chatter back and forth. Therefore, the first matches are important in order to find the rhythm of the game, adapt and then play more confidently. The ATP Cup is a great tournament to warm up knowing that you are not alone and have a whole team and support behind you.
If ten days ago the Russian national team looked like the absolute favorite of the tournament, then just before the start it turned out that Andrei Rublev , Aslan Karatsev and team captain Yevgeny Donskoy could not come to Australia due to positive tests for coronavirus. Daniil Medvedev was helped by Roman Safiullin , Evgeny Karlovsky and at the last moment Alexander Shevchenko .
The second racket of the world, of course, is stronger than each of the first numbers of the rival teams (and France, Australia and Italy play in our group), but the positions of Roman Safiullin, the second number of the team, are lower than each of the second players of the quartet.
All the more surprising were the results of the first game day for Russia. In the opening match, Roman (167th line in the ATP rating) met with Arthur Rinderknech (58). Lost the first set, but then made an amazing comeback and the Russian team was enriched by one point. Safiullin explained the victory by the fact that Medvedev gave him advice: “He said to forget about the pressure and just fight for every point.”
For Medvedev himself, according to him, the pressure should have helped: “Usually, with this pressure, I play better.” So after the success of Roman, it seemed to us that the victory over France was already in our pocket. But the pressure, perhaps, would have helped, but Daniel in the second set suffered from convulsions.
“My legs were so tight that there was almost no chance of winning,” he said. Nevertheless, he was able to bring the matter to a tie-break in the third set, it’s a pity that nothing happened there.
His rival Hugo Humbert also complained after the mast about poor health. “It’s good that I had enough strength to win.” But Umber did not have to go to the doubles match 25 minutes after grueling three hours, but Medvedev had to. “It took less than half an hour to prepare for the pair, which is very bad. How can you take a break from a three-hour match in 20 minutes? But I represented my country. If I die, I will still play for Russia. “
Quite experienced greenhouses, Fabrice Martin and Edouard Roger-Vasselin, finalists and winners of the Grand Slam tournaments, went out on the court against them . True, Fabrice and Edouard did not play together often, but Dania and Roman did not play at all. And against each other, perhaps at the junior level.
This is probably why the victory over the French duo was akin to a miracle, and Medvedev, who almost never celebrates his successes, reacted very violently to the fact that the French were defeated with a score of 2 – 1.
The next contender of the Russians will be Australia. With the owners of the courts, Medvedev and Safiullin will play on the morning of January 4.
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