Going, going, gone: De Minaur on the edge after loss to Medvedev

Daniil Medvedev got his head together for a comprehensive group win at the ATP Finals on Tuesday with a 6-2, 6-4 win to sink the hope of Alex de Minaur.

The Australian lost a second match at the eight-man year-ender 48 hours after going down to top seed Jannik Sinner.

The match against Medvedev, 2020 winner of the event, was no consolation for the Aussie whose chance of advancing to the weekend knockout stage are infinitesimal.

The quirky and entertaining Medvedev made a mental recovery from his opening loss here to Taylor Fritz, where he raged at the umpire and threatened to quit the event.

But calm prevailed on Tuesday, with the satisfied winner writing the enigmatic “block the noise” on the sideline TV camera lens in the post-match signoff.

“During that last match, I felt too tired mentally to even fight. But today I thought: ‘If I lose I go home on Thursday, but if I win I keep going.’

“I just went on court today to hit some shots and try to feel good again. It worked out well and I’m OK with that.”

Medvedev said he wanted “no tantrums, I didnt care what happened, I just wanted to play and that was a good feeling.”

He ran his group record to 1-1 with 24 winners to the 10 of the off-form de Minaur, only debutant in this year’s field in Turin.

The first three games of what had looked to be a slow-moving contest took 20 minutes but Medvedev quickened the pace with a double break of serve to capture the opening set.

He kept it up in the second, breaking for 5-4 and finishing the job a game later on his first match point. He has now defeated de Minaur in seven of their 10 matches.