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Daniil Medvedev US Open 2021
ATP Tennis Players, Daniil Medvedev, Novak Djokovic, Tennis News, Tennis Tournaments

Daniil Medvedev conquers Sebastian Korda to keep year-end number one hopes alive


Daniil Medvedev won to keep his Paris Masters title defence and his push to snatch the number one ranking from Novak Djokovic on track.

The world number two started slowly against Sebastian Korda. He suffered a break in the first set to lose it 6-4 to the American.

But Medvedev rallied to claim double break leads in both remaining sets to secure victory 4-6, 6-1, 6-3.

As a result, the Russian is still in with a chance of surpassing Djokovic atop the ATP rankings before the end of the season.

The world number one is looking to claim an outright record of a seventh year-end number one crown. Djokovic currently shares his ATP record of six with Pete Sampras. The American achieved the feat every year from 1993 to 1998.

Medvedev trails Djokovic by 1900 points in the ATP Race to Turin. If the Serb wins the Paris Masters for a sixth time, his place at world number one is secured for the rest of the season.

But if Medvedev wins the event, and especially if Djokovic does not reach the final on top of that, the Russian could be in with a real chance of claiming the year-end crown.

Should Medvedev achieve that dream, he would become the first Russian ATP number one since Marat Safin in April 2001. He would also be the third ever after Safin and Yevgeny Kafelnikov.

Finally, Medvedev is still in with a shot of registering his winningest ATP season to date. The most matches the Russian has ever won in a year on the tour is 59, achieved in 2019.

So far in 2021, Medvedev has 52 wins. Should he win the Paris Masters, and the ATP Finals without losing a match, he would secure 60 wins on the year.


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