Nadal beats Medvedev in dramatic comeback in Group Andre Agassi in Nitto ATP Finals

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Patna : Top seed and World No 1 Rafael Nadal, 33, Spain, defeated 4th seed Daniil Medvedev, 23, Russia, in a 2hr 46 minutes marathon in a Group Andre Agassi  match in Nitto ATP Finals on November 13, 2019, nigh, winning his first match in the tournament in a dramatic finish. Nadal beat Medvedev 6-7, 6-3, 7-6 staging a remarkable comeback after losing the first set. Nadal saved a match point at 1-5 in the third set to hold his serve and then broke Medvedev’s service in the next game.

Nadal was trailing 0-4 in the third set but rallied back strongly to level the set 5-5 breaking Medvedev’s service twice and then led 6-5. Medvedev held his serve to make it 6-6 taking the 3rd set to tiebreak. Nadal won the tiebreak 7-4 to win the match.  It was a repeat of 2019 US Open Final in which Nadal had defeated Medvedev in five-sets. Nadal now leads Medvedev 3-0 Head to Head. Nadal had also defeated the Russian in Rogers Cup in 2019.

Medvedev though hammered 21 Aces in the match to just 4 by Nadal. Nadal, however, won 4 break points in the match- two each in 2nd and 3rd set- to 2 by Medvedev. Nadal won 5 games in a row in the match to 4 by the Russian. The Spaniard won 72 service points to 70 by the Russian. Both the players committed 2 double faults each. Nadal, after the match, said he was super lucky on the day. The World No 1 said Medvedev was playing much better than him in the 3rd set.

World No 1 Nadal had lost his first match in Group Andre Agassi to defending champion and 7th seed Alexander Zverev, 22, Germany,  2-6, 4-6 on November 12. Medvedev on November 13 lost his second match in the Group. He had lost his first match to 6th Stefanos Tsitsipas, 21, Greece, on November 11.