Turin. US Open runner-up Taylor Fritz benefited from Daniil Medvedev‘s questionable serve decision and frustrated his opponent so much that the Russian broke his racket and was penalized a point en route to a 6-4, 6- 3 for the American in the opening match of the ATP Finals on Sunday.
On the only break point of the first set for either player, Medvedev attempted a stronger than usual second serve, but his attempt ended up in the net, ceding the set to Fritz.
The first set had been virtually even up to that point and Medvedev seemed to immediately regret his decision, or its execution, as the Russian stormed off to his bench.
First, Medvedev slammed his racket against the bench, resulting in a small dent. He then slammed the racquet again on the Inapli Arena hard court, leaving it twisted, prompting him to throw it behind him.
Medvedev received a misconduct ticket from the chair umpire for his behavior.
Midway through the second set, Medvedev was penalized a point after he broke and lost his composure again.
Medvedev then acted as if he were returning serve with the racket upside down, holding it by the end of the handle and grip in front of Fritz. That drew whistles from the crowd and Medvedev changed racket position just before Fritz served.
Fritz increased his concentration to close out the match and served the final game to love, volleying in his first match point.
“Sometimes it’s very easy when someone is doing that, you can relax and think they’re just going to finish and then you lower your level,” Fritz said. “So I just had to try to tell myself, ‘Stay focused, serve well at 5-3 because he’s going to come out and fight for that game.’ Fortunately, I did very well with the serve.”
Fritz was consistent throughout the match, winning multiple long rallies and even managed to execute a winning point when he lobbed the ball for the break that ended up deciding the second set.
Fritz led 21-15 in winners and had 14 unforced errors to Medvedev’s 22.
In September at the US Open, Fritz became the first American man to reach a final of Grand Slam in 15 years, but lost the championship match to world number one Jannik Sinner.
The Californian participates in the end-of-season tournament that brings together the eight best players of the year for the second time. Two years ago, Fritz beat Rafael Nadal in his opening match and lost to Novak Djokovic in the semifinals.
Later, Italy’s Sinner faced Australian Alex de Minaur, who makes his finals debut, and Fritz will have a rematch with Sinner later in the week.
The other group starts on Monday with Carlos Alcaraz facing Casper Ruud and Alexander Zverev facing Andrey Rublev.
The top two in each group — in a round-robin format — advance to the semifinals.
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