Cincinnati 2019: Daniil Medvedev makes Masters 1000 breakthrough by beating David Goffin
In his third tournament final in as many weeks, Daniil Medvedev beat Belgium's David Goffin in the final of the 2019 Cincinnati Masters to become the third first-time winner of a Masters 1000 title this season, following Dominic Thiem (Indian Wells) and Fabio Fognini (Monte Carlo).
After being thwarted by Rafael Nadal in the Coupe Rogers final last week, Medvedev came good in his second Masters final to become the 69th different player to triumph at a Masters tournament since the series was conceptualized in 1990, and the 18th active player to do so.
This is the third consecutive season to witness three new Masters 1000 winners.
In the third career meeting between the two four-time titlists, it was the younger of the two men who started faster off the blocks. Medvedev rode on a break of the Goffin serve in the fourth game of the match to take a 4-1 lead, only for the Belgian to respond by taking three games on the trot.
In the ensuing tiebreak where the first four points went against the server, Medvedev converted his second set point to take a one-set lead.
A rattled Goffin dropped serve in the opening game of the second set and never recovered. On the rare occasions when Medvedev's first serve faltered, a monstrous second serve would come to the Russian's rescue and deny his Belgian opponent a look-in.
Medvedev tightened up while serving for the match, falling 15-40 behind. But both break points for Goffin disappeared in a flash as Medvedev sent down four consecutive aces to seal a 7-6 (3), 6-4 win for the biggest title of his young career
Goffin fell short in his bid to become the first Belgian winner at a Masters 1000 tournament, with the World No. 19 dropping to 4-9 in title matches. On the other hand, Medvedev displayed little signs of exhaustion in registering his 14th win in 20 days across three tournaments to win his second title of the season and fifth overall.
Medvedev's win over Goffin marks the first instance of a Russian winner at Cincinnati and the fifth different player to lift the Cincinnati title in the last five seasons (Roger Federer - 2015, Marin Cilic - 2016, Grigor Dimitrov - 2017 and Novak Djokovic - 2018).
The 23-year-old Russian is the youngest first-time winner at a Masters 1000 tournament since his then 22-year-old good friend and compatriot Karen Khachanov triumphed at Paris-Bercy 2018.
Medvedev clinched his first Masters 1000 title in his 20th appearance at a Masters tournament.
Only six of 18 active players to have won a Masters title (Khachanov, Alexander Zverev, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Djokovic, Tomas Berdych and Nadal) made a quicker Masters breakthrough than the Russian, with Tsonga the quickest to do so - in just his eighth Masters appearance, at Paris-Bercy 2008.
The Cincinnati triumph marks a tour-leading 44th match win of the season for Medvedev and 31st on hardcourt. The Russian is poised to rise to a career-high No. 5 in the world rankings on Monday.
For the second consecutive year, the first seven Masters tournaments of the season have produced six different winners.