Daniil Medvedev caps a big week with victory in the last ATP Finals in London

The ATP Finals commenced its successful stay in London 11 years ago with a Russian triumph and ended on Monday with the same.

Daniil Medvedev with the ATP Finals trophy, which comes with a cheque for $2.2m

The ATP Finals commenced its successful stay in London 11 years ago with a Russian triumph and ended early on Monday with the same, as Daniil Medvedev followed in the footsteps of Nikolay Davydenko by winning the season-ending tournament at the O2.

Medvedev, 24, did it in some style, a 4-6, 7-6 (7-2), 6-4 victory against Austria’s Dominic Thiem, the US Open champion, capping a week in which he became the first person to beat the world’s top three players – in this instance Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Thiem – en route to the title at an event that has 50 years of history.

It is in fact a rare achievement full stop, with only three others doing the same at any ATP tour event since 1990.

As was the case in his semi-final against Nadal on Saturday, Medvedev was a set down against Thiem. But the world No 4 has a knack for slowly working out his opponents and adapting his unorthodox game to suit, and he turned the tables to claim a 10th consecutive victory and the biggest title of his career. “What a match,” Medvedev said. “It is one of my best victories.”

Medvedev made the better start in the early stages but suddenly dropped serve having been 40-0 up in the fifth game. Thiem, with his powerful spin-heavy groundstrokes, took control and clinched the set with a forehand pass that clipped the net cord.

Thiem, 27, looked to be edging closer to the title when he brought up two break points at 3-3 in the second set, but a cry of frustration reverberated around this empty arena — normally host to 18,000 spectators — when he failed to convert.

The turnaround then came in the tie-break when Medvedev reeled off seven points in a row from 2-0 down to level the match.

Using his slice to disrupt the rhythm of his opponent, Medvedev was on top in the deciding set and one break of serve was enough for him to seal victory in two hours and 42 minutes.

“Daniil really deserved it,” Thiem said. “It was an amazing match. Congratulations in general for another great year as well.”

This was an entertaining spectacle to bring the curtain down on the ATP Finals’ long stint in London, although a real shame no spectators could attend the farewell event. Nonetheless, the ATP deserves much credit for salvaging their season-ending event in this difficult climate. While Medvedev’s winner’s cheque of £1.2m ($2.2m) was down by about 45 per cent on last year because of the lack of ticket and hospitality revenue, there can be no grumbling about a seven-figure sum for winning a tennis tournament.

Turin’s Pala Alpitour stadium — the largest indoor sporting arena in Italy, with a capacity of about 16,000 — will take over as the host venue for five years, although it remains to be seen whether the promised record prize pot of £10.9m ($20m) in a heavily government-funded bid will materialise after the economic difficulties caused by a global pandemic.

The O2, meanwhile, is next scheduled to host tennis in September 2022 when the Laver Cup, a team competition between Europe and the Rest of the World, organised by Roger Federer’s management company, comes to the United Kingdom for the first time.

It seems unlikely Federer, Nadal and Djokovic — now aged 39, 34 and 33 respectively — will return to London for this, if they are even still playing by then. As Federer continues his recovery from two operations on his right knee, the semi-final exits of Djokovic and Nadal last week again showed the chasing pack of younger players have closed the gap at tournaments played over best-of-three sets.

The best-of-five-set format, however, remains a problem for the fresh-faced generation. The Davis Cup, Olympic Games and Masters finals have all reverted to best-of-three at various points over the past 15 years, meaning that younger players are relatively inexperienced in extended matches. Winning three sets, rather than two, against Federer, Djokovic and Nadal remains a tough ask, particularly when this esteemed trio are so focused on increasing their respective major tallies in the ongoing battle to be considered the greatest of all time.

Thiem ended a run of 14 consecutive grand-slam tournaments won by the “big three” by winning the US Open this year, but Federer and Nadal were absent, while Djokovic was defaulted in the fourth round. The challenge next year for the likes of Thiem, Medvedev, Alexander Zverev and Stefanos Tsitsipas is to show they can also regularly get the better of the veterans on the sport’s four biggest stages: Melbourne Park, Roland Garros, Wimbledon and Flushing Meadows.

It remains uncertain, though, as to when the 2021 season will commence. The Australian Open was scheduled for January 18-31, but the players have been ordered by the local government not to enter the country until January 1 and a 14-day period of quarantine is mandatory, leaving little time for preparation. A likely scenario at this stage is the tournament will get put back by a week or two.

The Times