How does it feel to be standing with your first ATP World Tour trophy?
It’s an amazing feeling; (tennis players) work all their lives to get (a title), and I’m one of the lucky ones who got one. I’m not going to stop, I’m going to continue to work toward getting more titles.

Could you believe at 21 you are already a winner on the ATP World Tour? Was this a goal of yours, growing up to win an ATP title?
It’s very tough to say because growing up, I never thought I’d be a professional player in the Top 100. I went about it step-by-step, I never made any one big step. I was going through the Futures, the Challengers… last year I played a lot of ATP World Tour tournaments and one final (Chennai) and now, finally, I’m getting my first ATP trophy. It would have been tough to imagine that, even two years ago.

You, (Karen) Khachanov and (Andrey) Rublev are three of the top young Russians on the ATP World Tour and last season all broke into the Top 50. Talk about the success of Russian tennis and the future.
It’s amazing because I’m the last of the three to win an ATP World Tour title and I’m very happy to have caught them. All our lives, we’ve been playing tennis, all our lives we’ve been competing against each other. Of course, there were other (Russian players) before us but it’s just the three of us right now. The competition between us makes us better. It makes me happy when they do well and of course I hope they’re happy when I do well. It’s amazing and we’re going to do big things later, I think.

You have had a lot of support in your young career. Who are the people that have allowed you to get this level and you would like to acknowledge?
I want to thank all my coaches, who I’ve been working with throughout my life. There weren’t a lot of them, but they made a big impact. My first coach, a woman named Ekaterina Kryuchkova… the most important people in my career, my parents, Sergey and Olga, because they were always trying to find the money to support my tennis, even when at times it was amazingly hard. They were with me from the beginning, always believing in me, never saying bad things to me when I lost and that’s just amazing. I want to thank the tennis centre where I’m working now, the Elite Tennis Centre in Cannes and the head coach, Jean-Rene Lisnard. Right now, I’m working full-time with my coach Gilles Cervara. We were working together before but we started working full-time just this year and we already have a title, so that’s just amazing. I also want to thank my girlfriend Daria, who has a big impact on me.

What are your interests off the court and away from tennis?
My biggest hobby, it’s something I don’t exactly care to admit… it’s PlayStation (video games). I spend all my free time on it, so it’s my biggest hobby.

Watch Incredible Hot Shot: Medvedev Breaks Through De Minaur’s Defences

How was it playing in front of a crowd cheering so loudly for the home favourite Alex de Minaur?
It’s very tough, of course, but the thing is, I think it works both ways. If the crowd goes really crazy, sometimes it can get both players going. Even if the cheering is against you, you don’t hear they’re against you, you just feel the energy, so it can pump you up as well. But I’m sure he wouldn’t have made that comeback in the third set without the crowd. It was tough, but I’m really happy to have managed this. It’s a good lesson ahead of the Australian Open, where I play Thanasi Kokkinakis in the first round.

It seems like this is a really big breakthrough week for both you and for de Minaur.
Yeah, Alex, he’s just an amazing player. I remember I practised with him two or three years ago, in the club where I practise in France, and we played a tie-break where the loser had to clean the court. I was the only one serving and he was 15 years old at the time. He beat me and I said to my coach, “Wow; he’s really good”. And now I just played him in the final of an ATP World Tour tournament. At 18, his age, I was playing Futures. If he continues this way, he’s going to be an amazing player.

Watch Trophy Ceremony: Medvedev Receives Trophy, Praises De Minaur

Roberto Bautista Agut entered Saturday’s ASB Classic final leading the tournament in service breaks. And when the championship was on the line against second seed Juan Martin del Potro, the Spaniard came through once more to capture his second Auckland crown (also 2016), battling past Del Potro 6-1, 4-6, 7-5.

The fifth-seeded Spaniard broke Del Potro in the 11^th game of the third set, taking advantage of a second serve and targetting the Argentine’s backhand on consecutive shots. A game later, Bautista Agut erased a break point and served out the match to win his seventh ATP World Tour title and his first of the new season.

“It’s been a fantastic week for me. I gave everything I have on the court this week,” said Bautista Agut, who battled for more than two hours against Del Potro and nearly three hours during his semi-final against Robin Haase.

“It was an unbelievable match today. I’ve been fighting a lot on the court… I played two amazing games at the [end] of the match.”

The 29-year-old Bautista Agut has now won his past three ATP World Tour finals, dating back to 2017 Chennai (d. Medvedev) and 2017 Winston-Salem Open (d. Dzumhur). The Spaniard, though, might be at his best in Auckland. He improved to 13-2 in the New Zealand city, and his service breaks were the key to his second title run at the ASB Classic.

Bautista Agut broke his opponents a tournament-high 19 times, converting 58 per cent of his opportunities (19/33). He had even better luck against Del Potro (4/5), despite the second seed’s strong play coming into the final.

The 2009 champion Del Potro hadn’t dropped a set before Saturday but, in the first set, Bautista Agut dominated, breaking Del Potro three times to gain a one-set lead after only 31 minutes.

Del Potro, however, returned to his regular tennis proceedings in the second set, using his serve to set up his forehand well, and he broke Bautista Agut in the 10^th game to force a decider.

The third set was as the score indicates: dead even. At 15/40, 5-5, Del Potro erased a break point with an ace but Bautista Agut saw a second serve on the next point, and took advantage before serving out the match.

“I think my game improved a little bit. I could play even better but Roberto did well at the end of the match,” Del Potro said. “Roberto is a great champion so congratulations to him.

“It’s a good start of the year for me. I didnt expect to reach a final in my first tournament of the year but I played well,” Del Potro said.

He will receive 150 ATP Rankings points and $47,105 in prize money. Del Potro will also return to the Top 10 of the ATP Rankings for the first time since 4 August 2014. He falls to 20-10 in tour-level finals.

Bautista Agut will receive 250 ATP Rankings points and $89,435 in prize money and is projected to remain at No. 21 in the ATP Rankings.

Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic have started the 2018 ATP World Tour season perfectly. For the second consecutive week, the Austrian/Croatian pairing went 4-0 to win an ATP World Tour doubles title.

Marach/Pavic beat Max Mirnyi and Philipp Oswald 6-4, 5-7, 10-7 on Saturday at the ASB Classic in Auckland for their second title of the year. In week one, Marach/Pavic captured the doubles crown at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open in Doha.

“We have a lot of confidence, played two good weeks. Now it’s time to recover and get sharp for Melbourne,” Marach said.

The champions saved seven of nine break points in the 90-minute contest.

“It was not an easy match today especially against Max. He has a lot of experience, and he played a good match. But I think it just helped us a little bit that we got a little edge in the beginning of the [Match] Tie-break,” Pavic said.