Medvedev storms past Zverev to set up US Open final rematch with Djokovic

World No. 2 Daniil Medvedev stormed past Alexander Zverev in the semifinals of the Rolex Paris Masters on Saturday, 6-2, 6-2, to set up a clash between the Top 2 players in the world—No. 1-ranked Novak Djokovic awaits in the final of the Masters 1000 event.

After Djokovic snuck out a 3-6, 6-0, 7-6 (5) victory over Hubert Hurkacz in the first semifinal of the day, the early goings of the second semifinal made it seem like there could be another tight one coming up—Medvedev and Zverev traded holds in the first few games, and it actually looked like Zverev might be the first one to draw blood as he brought up double break point with Medvedev serving at 1-2, 15-40.

But it was one-way traffic from there as Medvedev not only fought off both of those break points, but won 10 of the next 11 games to build a 6-2, 5-1 lead.

Zverev held one last time to close the gap to 6-2, 5-2 but Medvedev swiftly served the match out in the next game, closing it out after an hour and 20 minutes.

The numbers from the match told the story—Medvedev finished with almost twice as many winners as unforced errors on the day, 14 to 8, while Zverev’s ratio was the other way around, finishing the match with 18 winners to 35 unforced errors.

Medvedev was also 4/5 on break points—Zverev was 0/3.

Medvedev is now through to his sixth career Masters 1000 final, going 4-1 in his first five—he actually lost his very first one in Toronto in 2019 (to Rafael Nadal) and has won his last four at Cincinnati and Shanghai in 2019, Paris in 2020 and Toronto this year.

The Russian has also won 22 of his last 24 matches, and—perhaps more relevant to Sunday—he’s won four of his last six meetings with Djokovic, upending him at Monte Carlo and Cincinnati in 2019, the ATP Finals in 2020 and the US Open 55 days ago.

“Hopefully I’ll be able to turn the tables around this time, you know, learning from that experience in New York,” Djokovic said ahead of the rematch. “I saw him play a little bit today against Zverev. He’s been playing fantastic tennis. He’s back at his best, you know, in the most important match, again, against Zverev in the semis. He’s not missing much and serving big. It seems like he’s finding the groove.

“We played a very close practice set about 10 days ago before coming here to Paris. So, you know, let’s hope for the sake of the fans and everyone involved we can have a thrilling match. I look forward to that challenge.”