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Melbourne, Feb. 19 (IANS): Russian fourth seed Daniil Medvedev on Friday beat Greece's Stefanos Tsitsipas to reach his first Australian Open final. Medvedev was clinical throughout the match and dismantled Tsitsipas in straight sets with the score reading 6-4 6-2 7-5 at the Rod Laver Arena.
This is Medvedev's second Grand Slam final, having made it to the title clash at the 2019 US Open where he lost to Spain's Rafael Nadal. Medvedev will be facing Serbian world no.1 Novak Djokovic on Sunday with the latter vying for a ninth Australian Open title. The 25-year-old Russian is looking to become the first Russian male winner in Melbourne since Marat Safin in 2005.
Medvedev was largely untroubled throughout the match except in the third set when Tsitsipas threatened to make a comeback as he did in his semi-final match against Rafael Nadal. Tsitsipas was two sets down to love in that match as well before rallying to take the match in five sets over the 20-time Grand Slam champion. Tsitsipas got his first break to level the third set and then held his serve to lead 4-3. Medvedev then fought back to break back and lead the third set 6-5. He then held his serve again to quell Tsitsipas's brief fightback.
Earlier, second-seeded pair Elise Mertens of Belgium and Aryna Sabalenka of Bulgaria beat Czech Republic's Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova 6-2, 6-3 to win the women's doubles title of the Australian Open. This is the second Grand Slam title for the pair, having earlier won the 2019 US Open.
The last game went on for eight minutes as Elise and Aryna dropped three championship points. The former earned a fourth championship point with an ace and then won the title after a backhand from Katerina went wide at the Rod Laver Arena.
Both players had reached the fourth round of the singles event at the Australian Open. While Mertens lost to Czech Karolina Muchova, Sabalenka lost to 23-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams.
Elise and Aryana had earlier beaten Nicole Melichar and Demi Schuurs in a hard-fought semi-final match. The second seeds won the match 7-5 6-4 in an hour and 36 minutes.
They are unlikely to play anymore doubles matches this season as Aryna, who is in the top 10 of the singles rankings, has chosen to not play doubles this year.