The US Open final has finally arrived. The last Grand Slam of the season reached its end, and there are just two guys standing – Rafael Nadal and Daniil Medvedev. The first one has 18 Grand Slam titles, and wants to close the gap between him and Federer. The second is hungry for success and didn’t win a single GS trophy yet. However, he is in fantastic shape and has been terrorizing the opponents recently.
Preview
Nadal started the season slow, as he always does. Following the loss at the finals of the Australian Open, he had three eliminations in the semis during the clay season tournaments, before winning the Rome Masters. After that the only competition which he didn’t conquer was Wimbledon. His road to the finals at Flushing hasn’t been that tough, but wasn’t sweet either. He eliminated Millman, Kokkinakis, Chung, Cilic against whom he lost the only set here, Schwartzman and at last Berrettini. Against the Italian, Rafa faced two set points in the opening sequence, when his rival had a 6-4 lead during the tiebreak. But apart from that, it was pretty much a routine for the Spaniard. Nadal knows how to win here, as he already has three US Open trophies. The fourth one would bring him just one Grand Slam away from the no.1 Roger Federer, which would probably is his goal.
As for Medvedev, the Russian has been superb since landing at the American soil. After losing in the finals of Washington and Rogers Cup, Medvedev took the silverware in Cincinnati and now has a chance to seal his first Grand Slam. The 23-year old has only 2 defeats during that stretch and 20 wins. But not only that, since the season started, Medvedev recorded 50 victories and has the most of all ATP players. Here in New York, his opponents were Gunneswaran, Dellien, Lopez, Koepfer, Wawrinka, and Dimitrov. There is one thing you should know about this guy. He is excellent under pressure. Why do we say that? Well, he played five tiebreaks at Flushing Meadows and didn’t lose a single one. That mental toughness was, in fact, the main reason why he went this far. Versatile game, good service, and the ability to adjust to almost any opponent are his main strengths, and it seems that this young lad has a nice future ahead of him.
Head to Head
These players met just once so far, recently in Canada at the Rogers Cup. It was the final of that Masters, and Nadal wiped out the Russian allowing him to take just three games, 6-3, 6-0. But that wasn’t the real picture at the time, because Medvedev had all sorts of troubles and a very demanding period behind him. Although, we need to say that Rafa did look very confident throughout the entire tournament back then.
Prediction
We have to give an edge to Nadal. There are several reasons for that. One, he knows how to win here as we said, and has the experience. Two, he is a fan favorite, especially after all the things Medvedev went through with the fans at Flushing. We all know how vain is the crowd in New York, especially if the player stood against it at some point. Just look at the example of Novak Djokovic. Also, Medvedev’s quadriceps is pretty vulnerable now, and playing against Nadal and Dimitrov is not the same, especially when Rafa starts blasting his top spins all over the court. Because of that we should suggest betting on the Spaniard. But BetXChange has another offer. Nadal to win with a handicap -1.5 sets sit at 0.34, and that looks fine.
