MY ACCOUNT
Daniil Medvedev is one match away from winning his first title of 2022 after beating Adrian Mannarino in straight sets to reach the Rosmalen Grass Court Championships final.
Defending champion Mannarino had won eight matches in a row at the ATP 250 event, which was last held in 2019, but he fell 7-5 7-5 to Medvedev in a match lasting a little under two hours.
Top seed Medvedev, whose most recent appearance in a final came at the Australian Open in January, will now face home favourite Tim van Rijthoven on Sunday.
“Adrian plays good, and some games in this match I was like: okay, I can’t do anything,” said Medvedev, who will reclaim top spot in the ATP rankings next week.
“I had to just continue playing my tennis. He was unbelievable sometimes, missing sometimes, so I just continued my game, and it managed to work today.”
Medvedev was far from his best against flat-hitting Mannarino, with the first set featuring five breaks of serve, but the 26-year-old did enough to edge in front.
After wasting a chance to serve out the match in the 10th game of the second set, Medvedev edged a mammoth 11th game and avoided any sort of scare to advance through.
The Russian will next face a different sort of test against Van Rijthoven after the Dutch wildcard stunned second seed Felix Auger-Aliassime earlier on Saturday.
Van Rijthoven, who had not won a match at tour level until his opening-round win over Matthew Ebden, prevailed 6-3 1-6 7-6 (7-5) in a thrilling semi-final.
After sharing the first two sets, Van Rijthoven wasted six break-point opportunities in the decider, but he held his nerve in the tie-break to keep his dream run going.
He is the first Dutchman to reach the final in ‘s-Hertogenbosch since Raemon Sluiter in 2009.
