Losing in two previous Australian Open finals Daniil Medvedev will be looking to finally capture the inaugural Grand slam, with no Novak Djokovic or Rafael Nadal in the final. But one of the dark horses of the competition from the start, Jannik Sinner is also not an easy task. Sinner has had a better run in the competition so far and has nearly spent six fewer hours on the court than Medvedev. But ‘Octopus’ is known to shock people and here is why. His only straight-sets progression was in the third round against Felix Auger-Aliassme. Half of his matches have gone the distance – against Hubert in the quarterfinals and from a 0-2 deficit against Emil Ruusuvuori in the second round and Alexander Zverev in the Semifinal. Australian Open 2024: Hsieh Su Wei-Elise Mertens Win Women’s Doubles Championship, Defeat Jelena Ostapenko-Lyudmyla Kichenok in Two Sets.

Veteran in the ATP circle, the Russian star has a success rate of above 75% on the first and it drops 48% on the second serve. But Medvedev is an exceptional mover on hard courts and is typically content to counterpunch as long as it takes to draw his opponent out of position. He won’t always have that luxury on Sunday given his opponent’s current level. At the same time the ‘grandmaster‘ is known for his change in tactics on the court depending on the opponent. With Sinner’s power, we can expect Medvedev to play deep in the court.

In head-to-head matchups, Medvedev has won six out of nine encounters, but more importantly, he lost three consecutive matches against the emerging star and all those three wins came last year, with two of them on the hard court. Pumped up Medvedev has said in a pre-game interview “Mentally 100 per cent, I'm stronger than I was before this tournament, because now I know that I'm capable of some things maybe I thought I'm not … Probably honestly, it's better to be in the final winning three-set, four-set matches,” hinting on the possible mentality of Medvedev to win his first Australian Open title and second overall Major.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 28, 2024 12:47 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).