Medvedev defeats Rune and achieves his first title on clay in Rome

It was surprising the presence of Daniil Medvedev in the final. The Russian has actively and passively stated that clay is his worst surface. It was his second final on clay after losing to Dominic Thiem four years ago at the Conde de Godo. This time he took his chance to win in Rome his first title on clay and sixth Masters 100, fifth title of the year and twentieth in his career. He beat Holger Rune by a double 7-5 , in one hour and 42 minutes, and this Monday will look like world number two, to the detriment of Novak Djokovic. “I usually hated this surface. Before this tournament I did not do badly in Madrid and Monte Carlo. Coming here, I started to feel really good. I’m happy to have proved to myself that I could do it. From now on I’m going to like clay courts a lot more”, he said after the match..

Rune, on the contrary, is right now a tennis player who is counted on in the final instances of any tournament. Able to overcome Djokovic to win Paris Bercy with his first Masters 1000, he let the Monte Carlo title escape a few weeks ago when he clearly dominated Andrey Rublev. Called to become one of Alcaraz's great rivals, the Danish, recent champion in Munich, is still far from ruling the games as the man who will open his third stage as number 1 this Monday does.

an unfair drop

After easily beating Medvedev in the Monte Carlo quarterfinals, perhaps an easier match was envisioned. But before the Russian one often tends to hit the bone. After not taking advantage of the two break options available to him in the fifth game, the Gentofte tennis player gave up the partial before his opponent's first break point. And he did it in a bad way, throwing a drop without any future, as evidence of his lack of solutions.

Since Carlos Moyà took the title against David Nalbandian, it was the first time that Rafael Nadal and Djokovic were not present in a Foro Italico final. That happened in 2004. Eliminated the Serbian, defending champion, in the quarterfinals and the left-hander absent due to injury, the tournament was open to a new champion. Rune’s repertoire is indisputable. Another thing is the selection of strokes, when to do what, and his handling of emotions. He is as capable of successfully searching the net as he is of putting the icing on the cake with a superb backhand parallel to an interchange of 38 strokes. He did so on the first point of the seventh game of the second set, with 3-3 on the scoreboard.

However, in the same way he can squander the chance to equalize a match, as he did in the tenth, with the service, shortly before giving up his serve again in a disastrous game and with it deliver a duel in which he came out favorite. Without being far from negligible his role so far on the clay tour, it is clear that, at 20 years old, he is still far from finding the dose of lucidity and temperance necessary to aspire to everything.