Khachanov Battles, Medvedev Almost Perfect In Team Russia Win

Karen Khachanov and Daniil Medvedev helped Team Russia to a 2-1 victory over Team United States in Group D at the inaugural ATP Cup in Perth on Sunday night.

Khachanov battled back once again to record his second singles win in Perth for a 3-6, 7-5, 6-1 victory over Taylor Fritz in one hour and 52 minutes, while Medvedev broke down John Isner’s serve, committing just two unforced errors in a 6-3, 6-1 win over just 60 minutes at the RAC Arena.

Americans Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram prevented a clean sweep for Russia by winning the doubles match over Khachanov and Medvedev 6-3, 6-4 in 67 minutes.

When asked if he would tinker with the doubles team for the Norway tie on Tuesday, Russia’s captain, former World No. 1 Marat Safin, said: “I think for the moment I want them [Medvedev and Khachanov] to play as many match as they can so they get used to it for this tournament and their future careers, if they decide to play doubles at some point together.”

Regardless of the score, if Russia beats Norway on Tuesday, Russia wins Group D and travels to Sydney for the Final Eight of the ATP Cup.

World No. 5 Medvedev was in excellent form in the second singles match, hitting 24 winners and committing just two unforced errors in a 60-minute victory over Isner.

“I think I played great,” said Medvedev. “To beat John with such score is a really great achievement. I knew before the match I just had to try return as much as possible. It worked out well. On my serve, I had only one tight game, missed some first serves. If not, I think the match was under my control. So I’m really happy for the team that we got the important win.

“I was really expecting some maybe three tie-breaks or something like that. I played [Reilly] Opelka last year in three tie-breaks. I played [Milos] Raonic with tie-breaks. I’m really happy that I managed to kind of read his serve, returned really well and win without a tie-break.”

Medvedev soon created opportunities to break Isner’s serve, going close in the third game of the first set. The Russian then won five straight games from 2-3 in the first set to 1-0 in the second set. Isner, who struck 33 aces in his opening match against Casper Ruud of Norway on Friday, won 14 of 27 service points and hit five aces against Medvedev, who broke at 2-1 in the second set.

“I got my ass kicked out there,” said Isner. “He did what he does well, which is make a lot of balls, that’s kind of how he was playing last year. I wasn’t even close tonight. Generally, with my game, I can keep matches close and make it depend on a few points here or there, but that wasn’t the case tonight… I didn’t quite serve as well as I needed to, there’s no doubt. I can certainly serve better.”

The 23-year-old Medvedev, who rose to a career-high No. 4 in the FedEx ATP Rankings last year, compiled a 59-21 match record in 2019, including four titles.

Fritz got off to a quick start in the first singles match, showing great variation on his serve and a willingness to attack the net to keep Khachanov on the back foot. Khachanov, who’d won their previous match 6-2, 6-4 at the Rolex Shanghai Masters three months ago, began to work his way into the match, but Fritz’s shot-making was too strong in the 33-minute first set. At 5-3, Fritz was taken to deuce for the second consecutive game, but he held firm saving one break point.

“He started like on the 10th speed,” said Khachanov. “In the car you have only six, but he started with 10. And he was hitting everything like full power and he didn’t give me any rhythm… I think at the end of the first set I already had him, I had a break point. If I would have broken, maybe I would have even turned it around earlier.

Fritz, standing on top of his backhand and striking cleanly, broke Khachanov for a 3-2 advantage in the second set, but was immediately clawed back. Khachanov could not convert a set point on Fritz’s serve at 5-4, but his greater groundstroke depth and power led to a decider.

“I played well since the beginning, he just played more aggressive, faster, hitting to the sides and didn’t miss. I stepped in a little bit more, started to play with more trajectory to push him back a little bit from the baseline, and, in general, I think I pumped myself up to play, to increase to an even higher level. I’m really proud of that.”

Khachanov won five straight games from 5-5 in the second set to 3-0 in the third set, dragging Fritz out wide to open up the court. On Friday, Khachanov recovered from 2-5 down in the first set — and saved one set point at 3-5 — en route to a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Italian Stefano Travaglia.

“I started out like the first set-and-a-half playing just really, really well,” said Fritz. “I was stepping into everything. I felt like I couldn’t miss a backhand, was hitting it really hard and crosscourt, and then, just like anytime I kind of got a look at a forehand, I was just crushing it. It felt great. It’s definitely the kind of tennis that I like to envision myself playing and I want myself to play.”

“But as the match went on I felt like he made some adjustments in the point structuring, started moving his backhand down the line a bit more. As the balls were getting worn out, I felt it was a lot tougher for me to penetrate through. I felt like I wasn’t getting as many free points off my serve. He started serving a bit better. He just made some adjustments and I didn’t quite keep my level.”

The United States lost 1-2 to Norway in its first Group D tie in Perth on Friday. Fritz beat Viktor Durasovic in that tie.

Khachanov hit 12 aces and Fritz 11 aces, meaning $2,300 towards the Aces for Bushfire Relief initiative, going directly to the Australian Red Cross bushfire disaster relief and recovery efforts.

“I think that it’s the greatest idea that came into tennis, to support this cause, because, unfortunately this is happening in Australia, and I just wish to serve as many aces as possible to give more money from my side.”

Fritz said: “It’s great what the tournament’s doing. I think I served eight the other day, so it’s almost already $2,000 that I’ve helped contribute to this. It’s great to see that it’s finally getting some awareness outside of Australia. Worldwide, people are pitching in and doing their part.”