5 most recent players who made their Masters 1000 breakthrough
The ATP Masters 1000 series consists of nine tournaments in the tennis calendar, each of which awards 1000 points to the winner. Behind the four Grand Slam tournaments and the season-ending ATP Finals, Masters 1000 tournaments are the most important events on the men's tour.
Initially called the 'ATP Championship Series' from 1990 to 1995, the series has been known by various names over the years. It was known as the 'ATP Super 9' from 1996 to 1999, the 'Tennis Masters Series' from 2000 to 2003, the 'ATP Masters Series' from 2004 to 2008, and the 'ATP World Tour Masters 1000' from 2009 to 2018, before being known by its present name, the 'ATP Masters 1000' since the start of the 2019 season.
Since a certain Stefan Edberg beat Andre Agassi in the 1990 Indian Wells final to become the first winner of a Masters 1000 tournament, 68 other players have lifted a Masters title. And except for the years 2004, 2009, 2011, 2013 and 2015, there have been new/first-time Masters 1000 winners in every other year.
That said, this number has been dwindling every decade. In the 90s, there were 32 different players who lifted a Masters 1000 title. The 2000s saw 23 different players make their breakthrough in the tournament category, while only 14 did so in the decade that was 2010-2019.
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Without much ado, let us meet the last five players to win their respective first Masters 1000 titles.
#5 Daniil Medvedev (2019 Cincinnati)
After losing in straight sets to Rafael Nadal in his first Masters 1000 final at the 2019 Coupe Rogers, Daniil Medvedev ended up on the winners' podium the very next week at the Cincinnati Masters.
The ninth seed, playing his third tournament in as many weeks, displayed little signs of exhaustion as he beat Kyle Edmund, Benoit Paire, Jan-Lennard Struff and Roger Federer's conqueror Andrey Rublev to reach the semifinals.
Medvedev seemed to have met his match in the semifinals against defending champion Novak Djokovic. However, he fought back from a set down to book his place in back-to-back Masters 1000 finals, where he beat first-time Masters 1000 finalist David Goffin to become the 69th different player to lift a Masters 1000 title.