Well this just goes to show what can happen in world-class tennis! When this thing first started at nearly 5am for me I foolishly had decided to stay up all night rather than waking up early to watch it. It was really exciting for me at the start because the guy I was rooting for, Danlil, looked as though he was definitely going to win.
Just as I predicted Medvedev was able to shut down Sinner's strong service game thanks to his ultra-long reach. He also was rushing the net post serve to put Sinner constantly on the defensive and honestly, looked extremely dominant and he cruised to a 2-set lead after winning 6-3, 6-3. It was at this point that I was seriously struggling to keep my eyes open so I decided to go to bed feeling assured that the Russian was going to finish Sinner off in set 3.
Boy was I ever wrong.
I suppose you can only keep the level of running and activity up for so long that Medvedev was exerting in the first 2 sets because from the recaps that I saw upon waking up at the crack of noon Danlil was noticeably slower in sets 3-5. By the end of it, after nearly 4 hours of running around Danlil looked absolutely exhausted but to be fair, so did Jannik Sinner. After an amazing forehand that landed just on the line the ginger Italian collapsed on the ground before shortly getting up to celebrate his first ever major title victory.
Despite the fact that it wasn't the result that I wanted, this is one of the major things that I like about tennis. Things can change so quickly and a lot of it is a mental game. When someone gets rattled, they really need to focus in order to keep their cool so they can carry one playing with excellence.
To Medvedev's credit he spent far more time on the court than anyone else in the tournament and unless I am mistaken, his 24 hours and 17 minutes of overall play at the Australian Open is the most time that anyone has ever spent on court in a single Open tournament. So I guess it is understandable why he might be a teensy bit tired. Coming into the final Medvedev had already spent 6 hours more time on court than Sinner. Unlike some other players in the tournament though, Danlil didn't make any excuses and accepted the defeat - his 5th of his last 6 final appearances in major tournaments. There's no shame in silver.... right?
We have more tournaments coming up really soon in the world of tennis and it will be exciting to see how Jannik Sinner progresses from this point forward. Will he be able to keep up this level of excellence or will this end up being a "one and done" like so many others have faced in the past?