Davis Cup: Daniil Medvedev victory sets up Russia-Croatia final

World No. 2 Daniil Medvedev on Saturday
helped the Russian Tennis Federation to advance into the Davis Cup final with a
dominant win over Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff in Madrid. Russian Tennis
Federation will face Croatia in the final on Sunday.

In the best-of-three semi-final, Medvedev won 6-4 6-4 to give the Russians a 2-0 lead after Andrey
Rublev thrashed Dominik Koepfer. World number five Rublev took just 49 minutes
to win 6-4, 6-0 in the opener.

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Croatia made it to the final after a 2-1
victory over Serbia in Friday’s first semi-final.

The Russians, playing under the name of
their federation because the nation is banned from international competition
for doping violations by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), were the
pre-tournament favourites and have demonstrated why with some strong
performances.

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Medvedev, 25, had won all three of his
previous matches without dropping a set and he was never under pressure in the
semifinal match either.

At the onset of the match, Struff had
looked comfortable on serve, but a sloppy game from the German helped Medvedev
to break for 5-4 and he wrapped up the opening set with another stronghold.

From that point, it looked unlikely that
the Russians would need a deciding doubles match to seal the victory.

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Russia last won the Davis Cup in 2006. They
would hope to end the wait this time around.

Doubts had been raised about Rublev’s level
after mixed fortunes at the Finals, but he responded with an imperious display
against Koepfer in the opening rubber.

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An early break in the first set allowed the
world number five to settle and he remained focused throughout a dominant win.

“I think the main difference was from
the beginning to the end I was super focused and tried to raise my level game
by game,” he said.