By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Sunday October 13, 2019
Daniil Medvedev broke open a close match and cruised past Alexander Zverev to his second consecutive Masters 1000 title at Shanghai.
The relentless march to the top of tennis continues for Daniil Medvedev.
The Russian, who became one of five active players to reach six consecutive finals in his career on Saturday in Shanghai, took it a step further on Sunday by rumbling past Alexander Zverev in a lopsided final 6-4 6-1.
It was a weekend that played out in favor of the youth in Shanghai, with all four semifinalists under the age of 24 for the first time at a Masters 1000 tournament for the first time since 1999, and both finalists 24 or younger for the first time at a Masters 1000 since the Paris final in 2009 was played by a 22-year-old Novak Djokovic and a 23-year-old Gael Monfils.
23-year-old Medvedev claims his second consecutive Masters 1000 title and his seventh ATP title overall with the victory, which was his tour-leading 59th victory of the season.
The final was close for a spell, but not for long.
Zverev, who entered Sunday’s contest with a 4-0 lifetime record of Medvedev and growing in confidence after a dramatic win over Roger Federer in the quarterfinals, surrendered an early break but answered back with a break of his own to get back on serve at 2-3 in the opening set.
Later in the set Zverev would prove to be the engineer his own demise when he produced back-to-back double-faults (his first two double-faults of the match) to hand Medvedev the set from 30-all while serving to stay in the set at 4-5.
Medvedev took that moment as his cue to dominate and he rushed through the next five games to open up a 6-4 5-0 lead with some incredible shotmaking. The German momentarily stopped the bleeding with a hold for 1-5, but by then his fate was determined.
Medvedev held easily in the final game of the final to close affairs in 74 minutes.
The Russian has gone on an unprecedented run since arriving at the Citi Open in Washington, D.C. to begin his North American hard court swing in July. He has won 29 of 32 matches since that point, while simultaneously making history joining the Big Four as one of just five active players to have reached six consecutive finals in his career.
"It's something outrageous that I have done in the last few months,” Medvedev said on court after the final. “I mean, I have been working for it. ... I hope I'm gonna do much more."
Medvedev improves to 7-6 lifetime in finals overall and 46-9 on hard courts in 2019.
Zverev had plenty of praise for his rival as he accepted his runner-up trophy.
“You’re probably the best player in the world right now over the last few months—six finals in a row, I think you could make it maybe nine or ten in a row,” Zverev told Medvedev and the crowd.
Zverev falls to 41-21 on the season, but he has pushed into seventh place in the Race to London standings thanks to a run to the final that featured his first Top 10 win of the season.
During the trophy ceremony thanked his team and referred to his difficult season.
"It's gonna get better," he said. "We will it some point lift trophies up again together."