There are aspects of tennis that remain a mystery to Russia’s Daniil Medvedev.
He doesn’t know, for instance, exactly how he was able to anticipate where two of the sport’s biggest servers were going to place their shots at the National Bank Open in Toronto this week. Doing so, though, was key to winning the tournament title.
Medvedev, the No. 1 seed, beat qualifier Reilly Opelka 6-4, 6-3 on Sunday, turning the six-foot-11 American’s booming blasts away with seeming ease. He absorbed similar rockets from John Isner of the U.S. in a 6-2, 6-2 win on Saturday.
“I still don’t understand many things about tennis,” Medvedev told reporters after clinching the championship.
“The semifinal and the final, I don’t know what happened, but except for a few moments, I could kind of read and feel where (Opelka and Isner) were serving and just get a racket on the ball and get it in court.”
Medvedev, 25, saved 4-of-4 break points and won 73 per cent of his total service points in the one-hour, 25-minute match on Sunday.
Opelka, playing in his first-ever ATP Masters 1000 final, won just 63 per cent of his first service points with eight aces and three double faults.
Conditions on the court were windy, Opelka said, and that made it difficult for the 23-year-old to be consistently powerful.
“But even when I hit some big shots, he countered well and it was very tough to disrupt him at all,” he said. “All expected but he really executed well.”
Medvedev, the world No. 2, played much of the match from well below the baseline in order to respond to Opelka’s massive serve.
The Russian faced a triple break point early in the first set but saved all three, coming back from 0-40 to hold serve at 2-2.
Opelka was broken in the next game when Medvedev sent a giant rocket screeching down the line.
Opelka, ranked 32nd in the world, faced another break in the first game of the second set after Medvedev put another forehand shot straight down the line, but the American held on for the save.
A double fault gave Medvedev the break on Opelka’s next serve and the Russian went up 2-1.
Midway through the second set, it was Medvedev who faced a break. Opelka seemed for a moment poised to finally have a chance until he sent a return just wide, and Medvedev held serve to make it 4-2.
“He’s really fast, he’s really quick. It’s hard to disrupt him. It’s hard to hurt him. It’s hard to really hurt him,” Opelka said.
Medvedev sealed the victory by breaking Opelka once again, with the American sending a return into the top of the net.
Medvedev previously made it to the tournament’s final in 2019 when the event was known as the Rogers Cup but lost to Spanish tennis legend Rafael Nadal in straight sets.
This year, the Russian had to constantly adjust his game to win matches and said he was “on the edge of losing” to Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz in the quarterfinal. Medvedev ultimately took a 2-6, 7-6(6), 7-6(5) victory.
“The way I played, the way I fought and the way I won a few of these matches gives me a huge boost of confidence for next tournament,” said Medvedev, who’ll compete in the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati next week before heading to New York for the U.S. Open later this month.
“But again, confidence is such a thing you can get it quite fast but you can lose it very fast also so I’m just going to try to build up on it and keep it at least for the U.S. Open series.”
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe remain undefeated in women’s doubles at the WTA Finals.
The 2023 U.S. Open champions, seeded second at the event, secured a 1-6, 7-6 (1), (11-9) super-tiebreak win over fourth-seeded Italians Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in round-robin play on Tuesday.
The season-ending tournament features the WTA Tour’s top eight women’s doubles teams.
Dabrowski and Routliffe lost the first set in 22 minutes but levelled the match by breaking Errani’s serve three times in the second, including at 6-5. They clinched victory with Routliffe saving a match point on her serve and Dabrowski ending Errani’s final serve-and-volley attempt.
Dabrowski and Routliffe will next face fifth-seeded Americans Caroline Dolehide and Desirae Krawczyk on Thursday, where a win would secure a spot in the semifinals.
The final is scheduled for Saturday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Nov. 5, 2024.
EDMONTON – Jake Allen made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season and 26th of his career as the New Jersey Devils closed out their Western Canadian road trip with a 3-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Monday.
Jesper Bratt had a goal and an assist and Stefan Noesen and Timo Meier also scored for the Devils (8-5-2) who have won three of their last four on the heels on a four-game losing skid.
The Oilers (6-6-1) had their modest two-game winning streak snapped.
Calvin Pickard made 13 stops between the pipes for Edmonton.
TAKEAWAYS
Devils: In addition to his goal, Bratt picked up his 12th assist of the young season to give him nine points in his last eight games and now 15 points overall. Nico Hischier remains in the team lead, picking up an assist of his own to give him 16 points for the campaign. He has a point in all but four games this season.
Oilers: Forward Leon Draisaitl was held pointless after recording six points in his previous two games and nine points in his previous four. Draisaitl usually has strong showings against the Devils, coming into the contest with an eight-game point streak against New Jersey and 11 goals in 17 games.
KEY MOMENT
New Jersey took a 2-0 lead on the power play with 3:26 remaining in the second period as Hischier made a nice feed into the slot to Bratt, who wired his third of the season past Pickard.
KEY RETURN?
Oilers star forward and captain Connor McDavid took part in the optional morning skate for the Oilers, leading to hopes that he may be back sooner rather than later. McDavid has been expected to be out for two to three weeks with an ankle injury suffered during the first shift of last Monday’s loss in Columbus.
OILERS DEAL FOR D-MAN
The Oilers have acquired defenceman Ronnie Attard from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for defenceman Ben Gleason.
The 6-foot-3 Attard has spent the past three season in the Flyers organization seeing action in 29 career games. The 25-year-old right-shot defender and Western Michigan University grad was originally selected by Philadelphia in the third round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. Attard will report to the Oilers’ AHL affiliate in Bakersfield.
UP NEXT
Devils: Host the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.
Oilers: Host the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2024.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Patrick Mahomes threw for 291 yards and three touchdowns, and Kareem Hunt pounded into the end zone from two yards out in overtime to give the unbeaten Kansas City Chiefs a 30-24 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night.
DeAndre Hopkins had two touchdown receptions for the Chiefs (8-0), who drove through the rain for two fourth-quarter scores to take a 24-17 lead with 4:17 left. But then Kansas City watched as Baker Mayfield led the Bucs the other way in the final minute, hitting Ryan Miller in the end zone with 27 seconds to go in regulation time.
Tampa Bay (4-5) elected to kick the extra point and force overtime, rather than go for a two-point conversion and the win. And it cost the Buccaneers when Mayfield called tails and the coin flip was heads. Mahomes and the Chiefs took the ball, he was 5-for-5 passing on their drive in overtime, and Hunt finished his 106-yard rushing day with the deciding TD plunge.
Travis Kelce had 14 catches for 100 yards with girlfriend Taylor Swift watching from a suite, and Hopkins finished with eight catches for 86 yards as the Chiefs ran their winning streak to 14 dating to last season. They became the sixth Super Bowl champion to start 8-0 the following season.
Mayfield finished with 200 yards and two TDs passing for the Bucs, who have lost four of their last five.
It was a memorable first half for two players who had been waiting to play in Arrowhead Stadium.
The Bucs’ Rachaad White grew up about 10 minutes away in a tough part of Kansas City, but his family could never afford a ticket for him to see a game. He wound up on a circuitous path through Division II Nebraska-Kearney and a California junior college to Arizona State, where he eventually became of a third-round pick of Tampa Bay in the 2022 draft.
Two year later, White finally got into Arrowhead — and the end zone. He punctuated his seven-yard scoring run in the second quarter, which gave the Bucs a 7-3 lead, by nearly tossing the football into the second deck.
Then it was Hopkins’ turn in his first home game since arriving in Kansas City from a trade with the Titans.
The three-time All-Pro, who already had caught four passes, reeled in a third-down heave from Mahomes amid triple coverage for a 35-yard gain inside the Tampa Bay five-yard line. Three plays later, Mahomes found him in the back of the end zone, and Hopkins celebrated his first TD with the Chiefs with a dance from “Remember the Titans.”
Tampa Bay tried to seize control with consecutive scoring drives to start the second half. The first ended with a TD pass to Cade Otton, the latest tight end to shred the Chiefs, and Chase McLaughlin’s 47-yard field goal gave the Bucs a 17-10 lead.
The Chiefs answered in the fourth quarter. Mahomes marched them through the rain 70 yards for a tying touchdown pass, which he delivered to Samaje Perine while landing awkwardly and tweaking his left ankle, and then threw a laser to Hopkins on third-and-goal from the Buccaneers’ five-yard line to give Kansas City the lead.
Tampa Bay promptly went three-and-out, but its defence got the ball right back, and this time Mayfield calmly led his team down field. His capped the drive with a touchdown throw to Miller — his first career TD catch — with 27 seconds to go, and Tampa Bay elected to play for overtime.
UP NEXT
Buccaneers: Host the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.
