Big Serving Counterpunchers Battle In Turin Final

Zverev's different strategies, Medvedev's forehand, matchup caveats

Zverev d Medvedev: 6-4, 6-4

Zverev finally turns it around after losing the last 5 in a row to Medvedev.

Subtle changes over the last three matches

When they met in Paris a few weeks ago, on the slower court, Medvedev won by serenely looking after his own service games with booming serves, while also dominating the points that developed into baseline rallies (many of which happened on Zverev’s serve):

Then, in the group stages in Turin earlier this week, during a much tighter match which could have gone either way, Zverev looked like he was starting to figure some things out while also benefiting from faster conditions relative to Paris. Zverev kept up with Medvedev both on serve and from the baseline (despite losing narrowly):

Finally, today in the final in Turin, Zverev absolutely dominated the serve/return dynamic while also keeping pace in the longer rallies:

Medvedev didn’t have his best day on serve, Zverev had a near flawless day on his serve, and that made up most of the difference as the shorter point supremacy largely decided the winner. But when things did develop into baseline rallies, despite Medvedev narrowly winning more points over 5 shots, it was actually Zverev who won most of the important longer, rally points (more on that later).

Serve and Return

Medvedev’s serve placement today wasn’t at its lethal best, with regular deliveries into the Zverev forehand landing quite central in the service box:

Medvedev’s 1st serve placement today. While serving into the Zverev forehand is usually better than serving into the stronger backhand return, the placement from Medvedev probably wasn’t quite good enough to actually capitalise on that dynamic.

The red (losing points) cluster of dots going fast into the Zverev forehand return didn’t do Medvedev many favours today, with Zverev returning particularly well off his forehand wing off those big, but quite central, Medvedev serves:

This point set up the decisive break point in the 2nd set. Medvedev (this end) hits a big serve into the Zverev forehand (in theory the weaker wing) but Zverev redirects it excellently to rush Medvedev’s 2nd shot and take control of the point.

Conversely, Medvedev’s forehand return of serve, off Zverev’s very successful 1st serve today, wasn’t quite so dialled in: