Novak Djokovic advanced to the Astana Open final in Kazakhstan after Daniil Medvedev retired from the pair’s semi-final clash on Saturday at the end of a dramatic second-set tie-break due to a leg injury.
Medvedev’s retirement came moments after Djokovic had clinched a dramatic tie-break to level the match at 4-6, 7-6(6). It was an unfortunate end to what was shaping up to be one of the matches of the year on the ATP Tour, with both players bringing a high level to their 11th ATP Head2Head meeting.
Djokovic will now aim to seal back-to-back titles in Sunday’s final against Stefanos Tsitsipas, who was a 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 winner against Andrey Rublev. The Serbian, who lifted his 89th tour-level crown in Tel Aviv last week, leads Tsitsipas 7-2 in their ATP Head2Head series.
Incredibly, this was Djokovic and Medvedev’s first meeting of 2022 – and only the second event where they were in the same draw, after Roland Garros. It was also Djokovic’s first match against a Top 10 player on a hard court since the 2021 Nitto ATP Finals, where he fell to Alexander Zverev in the semi-finals. Medvedev, meanwhile, was seeking his first indoor hard-court final since that same event.
The battle between the second and fourth seeds was a master class in geometry, as the two players artfully carved a dizzying array of intricate, intuitive shots.
