(Provided by Tennis World USA)
Daniil Medvedev and Stefanos Tsitsipas will face in teh bottom half semifinal of the Internazionali BNL d’ItaliaThe Russian, step by step, managed to reach the semifinals beating Yannick Hanfmann 6-2 with a double win. Medvedev will play the semifinal for the twelfth time in a Masters 1000 tournament, the second on clay.
The former world number one immediately snatched the serve from the German to zero, but played a bad first game on serve, ended with two double faults. Hanfmann, however, repaid his opponent with the same coin by making a mistake on goal.
From 2-1, Medvedev went on autopilot and left only one game to Hanfmann. In the second set, the 27-year-old from Moscow sent a clear message and broke Hanfmann twice. In the penultimate act of the Italian event there will be the challenge for strong hearts with Stefanos Tsitsipas.
The two have already faced each other on eleven occasions, with the Russian is ahead 7-4 in the calculation of direct clashes, and given rise to animated discussions. Impossible to forget what happened in Miami in 2018. Medvedev did not accept Tsitsipas’ long toilet break and, with a very cold handshake at the end of the game, he said to him: “You better shut the fu*k up!” Hey, Stefanos, do you want to look at me and talk? You go to the bathroom for 5 minutes, then you don’t apologize for a net.
Do you think you are a good boy? Watch me!” According to his statements, the Athens tennis player would have insulted him as a Russian. Tsitsipas did not lose a single set in the entire tournament and defeated Borna Coric with a clear 6- 3, 6-4 in the finals.
The first half of the game suddenly lit up in the final part: Coric calibrated a couple of backhands badly and delivered the break to Tsitsipas in the eighth game. Called to serve to close the set, Tsitsipas canceled two balls of the counter break with as Many aces and confirmed the advantage with a fantastic drop shot.
The Greek surprised Coric again in response at the beginning of the second set, but the Croatian leveled the score at 4-4 by pushing from the baseline on the backhand diagonal: Tsitsipas tried unsuccessfully to move to the forehand.
When the match seemed to be able to live a new chapter, the player born in 1996 attempted a forbidden serve & volley and lost the serve at the worst moment. Tsitsipas made no mistakes and deservedly reached the semifinals in Rome.