A good, but not perfect Roberto Bautista Agut has won the Chennai Open after defeating Daniil Medvedev 6-3, 6-4, in the final.
Bautista Agut, who dropped only one set on his way to the final, had the clear advantage over his rival. Chennai was the 11th ATP final for the Spaniard compared to Medvedev’s first. This disparity in experience proved decisive to the outcome of the match.
The match began with a slow pace as neither player were effective with their returns. It wasn’t until the fourth game where Bautista Agut grabbed his first breakthrough when Medvedev goes down 0-40 and then loses the serve at 30 (in this game the Russian produces just 2 first services out of six points played). The set then continued with each player holding their own serve, enabling the Spaniard to take it 6-3.
The second set was a little tighter with both players having to save their serves on the advantages, but no break point is seen until the ninth game. Medvedev goes down 30-40 on his service before dropping his serve, gifting the second seed a chance to serve for the title. Bautista Agut then had no trouble converting his first match point by holding the serve to love to seal the 75-minute win.
“I cannot be more happy than now. I played a great tournament,” Bautista Agut said during the presentation ceremony.
“I know it is very difficult to be a top-10 player but my goal is to be a better player every day.”
All in all, it wasn’t a spectacular match, the rallies were often short and highly dominated by the serve. The crucial moments were the break points, in which Medvedev showed lack of experience.
The Russian player has for sure a powerful forehand and a consistent serve, but needs to improve his backhand, especially the back-spin one, and he also needs to improve from the tactics point of view, considering that he tends to hit almost all the balls at maximum pace. Even Bautista Agut didn’t perform perfectly, he made some avoidable unforced mistakes, but his greater experience led him to the victory.
