FILE PHOTO: Aug 9, 2019; Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Rafael Nadal of Spain reacts after winning a point in his match against Fabio Fognini of Italy (not pictured) during the Rogers Cup tennis tournament at Stade IGA. Mandatory Credit: Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports
August 11, 2019
Rafael Nadal will meet Russian Daniil Medvedev on Sunday in Montreal, seeking his fifth career Rogers Cup title.
Nadal made his way to the final in a walkover after Gael Monfils withdrew. It would have been the second match of the day for the Frenchman, who was forced to finish his quarterfinal match Saturday morning against Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain.
Friday night’s match was suspended due to rain after Monfils won the first two points. He topped Agut 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (2).
After the morning match, Monfils didn’t sound too confident about playing against the 33-year-old Nadal.
“I’m very tired and I hurt myself in the second set. I’ll talk to my team and we will see,” he said.
Medvedev, 23, topped fellow Russian Karen Khachanov 6-1, 7-6 (6) on Saturday afternoon to advance to his first ATP Masters 1000 final.
Medvedev, the World No. 8, had no trouble with Khachanov in the first set, cruising in just 23 minutes.
The quick set continued his domination on the week. To that point, Medvedev hadn’t dropped a set and lost just 13 games.
In the second set, however, nerves seemed to get the best of Medvedev at times. Serving for the match at 5-4, he couldn’t hold serve, with Khachanov taking the game.
In the tiebreak, Khachanov was down 0/2, then won four straight points, but Medvedev came back to win.
The serve was the difference for Medvedev, who won 89 percent – 33 of 37 — of his first-service points to 59 percent for his opponent.
This was Medvedev’s second Masters 1000 semifinal, losing earlier this year to Serbian Dusan Lajovic at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters.
When the new world rankings come out on Monday, Medvedev will become the highest-ranked Russian, overtaking Khachanov, who now is No. 8.
–Field Level Media
