ATP Masters Cincinnati: Roberto Bautista Agut celebrates comeback victory over Daniil Medvedev
Daniil Medvedev's mission to defend his title at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Cincinnati has failed. After a strong first set, the Russian suffered a bitter three-set defeat against Roberto Bautista Agut .
by Michael Rothschädl
last edit: Aug 26, 2020, 09:31 pm
It was one of the many chapters of Daniil Medvedev's run of success from the previous year when the Russian stormed to victory at the Western & Southern Open, the ATP Masters 1000 event from Cincinnati. Now, a year later, Medvedev and the entire crowd of players returned to the ATP tour in New York City - with the Russian as defending champion at the "preparatory tournament" for the US Open.
After extremely confident performances in the first two rounds, Medvedev should face the Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut in the quarter-finals of the ATP Masters 1000 event. Both players are considered to be extremely safe players - and demonstrated this impressively in the first few minutes of their meeting. While a number of players complained about the extremely fast places in Flushing Meadows, Medvedev and Bautista Agut hardly seemed to bother.
Medvedev with a dream start
The players fought extremely long backhand exchanges from the start - but Daniil Medvedev clearly got off to a better start. The Russian returned every single service of his counterparty by the end of the first set and was accordingly able to set pinpricks early on when the Spaniard served. More precisely, already in the second game, when the Russian Bautista Agut took the serve for the first time.
To the displeasure of the Spaniard, however, it did not stay that way, Medvedev made another break and closed the bag 6-1 a short time later in the first set. Medvedev could have made the dream start in the second round too, having two breakballs in the Spaniard's first service game. This was thwarted by Bautista Agut and took the lead for the first time in this match.
Bautista Agut makes a comeback
That should be the initiation of a trend reversal in this match, Bautista Agut was able to make the first break of this match a little later and pulled away with 3: 1. Daniil Medvedev shouldn’t let that deter him at all, the Russian managed the rebreak immediately. The 24-year-old was then able to make another break to 4: 3 and had the chance to pull away in set two.
This chance was missed, the Russian also wobbled on his own serve and Bautista Agut managed the rebreak. The turnaround in this match was finally initiated, the Spaniard brought his serve through and was able to make 1: 1 sets with a break and dream return.
Bautista Agut takes advantage in set three
With a further twist in this roller coaster ride of a tennis match, the third decision-making round started. Daniil Medvedev celebrated one of the numerous breaks in this game and took a 1-0 lead. In return, Bautista Agut also found breakballs, used the third and made it 1: 1 - the weak serve of the two players prolonged in set three.
A little later it was Roberto Bautista Agut, who was able to pull away with two games after another break and put it 4-2. The Spaniard was able to serve again a little later and took a 5-2 lead. Although Medvedev came up again to 5-3, Roberto Bautista Agut, serving the match, presented himself with extremely strong nerves, fended off two breakballs and made the comeback victory perfect.
So the Spaniard is a bit surprisingly in the semifinals. In this Roberto Bautista Agut meets the winner of the duel between Novak Djokovic and Jan-Lennard Struff.