Sinner's first major title – Turning point in Australian Open final: Sinner defeats Medvedev – Sports

Medvedev off to a flying start

Medvedev seemed ready for the final in Melbourne since the first rally. He put Sinner under pressure with his flat groundstrokes and made almost no errors. The Italian impressed and had to give up serve 4 times in his first 8 service matches. In the entire previous tournament, this happened only twice in 86 service matches.

At Rod Laver Arena, there was initially little that pointed to the obvious. In the first Australian Open final since 2005, in which none of the trio of Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal were represented, the more experienced Russian, already playing his sixth Grand Slam final, was in front after just over an hour of play. 6:3 and 5:1. However, at the latest, Sinner overcame his initial nervousness in his first major final, increasingly took charge of dictating the game and never gave up again.

Turn with coronation

The 22-year-old had his first break chance, reaching 3:5 and still having a chance to make up the second break of the set. He was no longer able to do this, but has since acted at the highest level. In the third round, the newcomer continued to advance until, with the score at 5:4, he used the only break ball to win the set.

The same picture in the fourth set: Sinner held serve without any problems and, time after time, involved an increasingly exhausted Medvedev in long and exhausting exchanges. Once again he broke the only set in the tenth game. This enabled Sinner to win the first Grand Slam title by an Italian player since Adriano Panatta's victory at the French Open in 1976.

I've passed before for Medvedev

The outcome of the match must have seemed familiar to the 27-year-old, who was forced to leave the court as a loser in his third Australian Open final. Two years ago, in the “Happy Knockouts” final against Rafael Nadal, he looked like he was leading comfortably 2-0 and finally had to congratulate his opponent on the title.