TURIN, Italy: Home favourite Jannik Sinner became the first Italian player to reach the title match in the season-ending ATP Finals as he beat Russian Daniil Medvedev at a raucous Pala Alpitour on Saturday.
The 22-year-old soaked up everything Medvedev threw at him and emerged with a 6-3 6-7(4) 6-1 victory.
Medvedev was seeking to reach his 10th final of an impressive season and had the first opportunity to secure a break of serve at 1-1 in the opening set, but Sinner stood firm.
Sinner secured a decisive break in the next game as some errors flew off the Medvedev racket.
Both players were rock-solid on serve in the second set with only one break point, saved by Sinner, on the way to a tiebreak.
Medvedev, sticking relentlessly to his heavy baseline game, grabbed the initiative and levelled the contest when Sinner sent a forehand over the baseline.
Sinner got his nose in front early in the decider when Medvedev double-faulted and moved to the brink of victory with another break to storm into a 5-1 lead.
The world number four brought up three match points with a superb backhand winner and sealed victory at the first attempt.
After losing his first six matches against Medvedev, Sinner has now won three in a row against the Russian.