It has been a terrific fall for Russian tennis. The Russian success continued on Sunday when third seed Daniil Medvedev beat fourth seed Alexander Zverev of Germany 5-7, 6-4, 6-1 in the final of the Rolex Paris Masters in France.
This was the final ATP Masters 1000 Series event of 2020. For Medvedev, it was his third career Masters 1000 Series championship title. He previously won the 2019 Cincinnati Masters by beating David Goffin of Belgium in the final, 7-6, 6-4. Then at the 2019 Shanghai Masters, Medvedev beat Zverev 6-4, 6-1.
Since we changed seasons from summer to fall, there have been five significant tennis tournaments (500 point event or higher) on the ATP Tour, with Russians winning four of the championships. The other three titles went to Andrey Rublev, who won the Hamburg European Open in September, the St. Petersburg Open in October, and the Vienna Open in Austria in October as well.
Medvedev is now fourth in the ATP World Rankings, and passes Roger Federer of Switzerland. Federer has missed the majority of the 2020 tennis season due to knee surgery. His only event was the Australian Open, where he reached the semifinals before losing to Novak Djokovic of Serbia. In addition to knee surgery, Federer has been dealing with a groin injury this year as well.
The only three players ranked higher than Medvedev at the moment are Djokovic, Rafael Nadal of Spain, and Dominic Thiem of Austria. Nadal is the only non-Russian to have won a significant tennis tournament in the fall season as he won his 13th career French Open title by beating Djokovic in the final, 6-0, 6-2, 7-5.
Rublev meanwhile has captured the most ATP titles in 2020. In addition to his three fall championships, he won the Qatar Open and the Adelaide International in Australia. Both were 250 series events that helped prepare players for the Australian Open. Rublev is currently eighth in the world. Rublev and Medvedev will participate at the ATP Finals in London later this month.
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