Melbourne, Feb 19 (IANS) Russia’s Daniil Medvedev admitted that he won’t be under too much pressure in the Australian Open final against Novak Djokovic who has never lost a summit clash in Melbourne.
Medvedev reached his first Australian Open final on Friday after beating Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-4, 6-2, 7-5 and will be facing Djokovic in the final.
Djokovic has reached the Australian Open final eight times in his career and never lost. A win on Sunday will help the Serb get within two wins of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal’s record of 20 Grand Slam titles.
“I don’t have a lot of pressure because Novak has never lost here in the final. He has all the pressure to get to Roger Federer and Rafa (in the all-time record of 20 men’s titles),” said Medvedev in the on-court interview after his semi-final match against Tsitsipas.
“I hope I will get out there and show my best tennis. As we have seen, I can win against the best names if I play well. He has more experience but more things to lose than me.”
Medvedev has prior experience of facing one of the “big three” in a Grand Slam final, having lost to Nadal in the 2019 US Open.
“I took a lot of experience (from the US Open final against Nadal). It was my first Grand Slam final against one of the greatest and on Sunday I will face one of the other greatest,” he said.
The 25-year-old Russian was clinical on Friday except in the third game when Tsitsipas threatened to stage a comeback from two sets to love down just as he did in his quarter-final match against Nadal.
“I saw that as soon as I was moving him around the court, it was not easy for him. As soon as I saw it in the first set, that became my strategy straight away,” said Medvedev.
He admitted that the slip-ups in the last set was due to the occasion getting to him. “I got a little bit scared and tight because it’s a semifinal of a Slam,” said Medvedev.
–IANS
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