Melbourne: Russia’s Daniil Medvedev reached the Australian Open final for the first time with a dominant victory against Stefanos Tsitsipas, here on Friday.
The in-form Medvedev won 6-4 6-2 7-5 against Greek fifth seed Tsitsipas, securing his 20th victory in a row.
Aside from a late third-set comeback attempt from Tsitsipas, Medvedev neutralised his opponent’s attacking skills and contested the majority of the two-hour, nine-minute encounter on his terms inside Rod Laver Arena.
The World No 4 landed 46 winners, compared to just 21 unforced errors, and won 88 per cent of his first-serve points (49/56) en route to victory.
‘It was definitely not easy, because we saw the match with Rafa was kind of the same score after two sets. [In] the third set, Rafa was dominating but didn’t manage to win the match, so I got a little bit scared and tight,” said Medvedev, after the win.
“It is the semi-final of a Slam… It was not easy, but I am happy I managed to switch my game on, especially in some tight moments on my serve and I am really happy to be in the final,’ he added.
Across his 20-match winning streak, Medvedev has defeated 12 Top 10 players. The Russian’s most recent loss against a Top 10 opponent came at last year’s US Open, when he fell to eventual champion Dominic Thiem in the semi-finals.
Alongside Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Andy Murray and Juan Martin del Potro, Medvedev is the sixth active player to record a 20-match tour-level winning streak.
Medvedev will contest his second major final when he meets Novak Djokovic on Sunday.
The 25-year-old owns a 3-4 ATP Head2Head record against the World No 1, which includes a 6-3, 6-3 victory in their most recent encounter at last year’s Nitto ATP Finals.
