TURIN, Italy — US Open finalist Taylor Fritz benefited from a questionable serving decision by Daniil Medvedev and frustrated his opponent so much that the Russian player broke his racket and was docked a point in a 6-4, 6-3 victory for the American in the opening match of the ATP Finals on Sunday.
On the only break point of the first set for either player, Medvedev went for a bigger-than-usual second serve, but his attempt landed in the net to hand Fritz the set.
It was Medvedev’s third consecutive double-fault.
“I have this every day, day in, day out, since like two, three years. Every practice is a struggle. Every match is a struggle,” Medvedev said. “Now I feel zero pleasure of being on the court.”
The first set had been virtually dead even until that point, and Medvedev immediately seemed to regret his decision — or execution — as the Russian player went over to his bench in a fit of rage.
Medvedev first slammed his racket against the bench, which resulted in a slight dent. Then he slammed the racket again on the hard court at Inalpi Arena and mangled the frame into a twisted mess — prompting him to toss it behind him.
He received a code violation from the chair umpire for his behavior.
“I get angry, frustrated. This time completely with myself, not with anyone. Just with myself,” Medvedev said.
Midway through the second set, Medvedev was docked a point after he was broken and lost his cool again.
Medvedev then acted as if he was going to return serve with his racket facing the wrong way, holding the butt of the racket and the grip facing Fritz. That drew whistles from the crowd, and Medvedev changed the racket position just before Fritz served.
“I was like, ‘Whatever, I lost the match. I don’t care,'” Medvedev said.
Fritz wasn’t bothered by Medvedev’s behavior.
“I was just laughing. I think he’s really funny, to be honest,” Fritz said. “Even when he’s not playing me, he always cracks me up.”
Still, Fritz decided to increase his focus and served out the match at love — serve-and-volleying on his first match point.
“It’s very easy sometimes when someone’s doing that, you can relax and think that they’re just going to be done and then you kind of drop your level,” Fritz said. “So, I just had to try to tell myself, ‘Stay focused, play a really good 5-3 game because he was going to fight for that game.’ Luckily, I served a great game.”
Fritz won long and memorable rallies at the start of each set, one that included 26 shots and another that lasted 30.
“It was huge,” Fritz said. “I kind of just fought through. … I thought I did a solid job showing him that I wasn’t going to give him a lot of free points.”
It was points like those that left Medvedev demoralized.
“Literally everyone can stay in the rally with me right now,” Medvedev said.
In September at the US Open, Fritz became the first American man to reach a Grand Slam final in 15 years, but he lost the championship match to top-ranked Jannik Sinner.
The Californian is appearing at the season-ending event for the year’s top eight players for the second time. Two years ago, Fritz beat Rafael Nadal in his opening match and lost to Novak Djokovic in the semifinals.
Later, Sinner plays Alex De Minaur, who is making his debut at the finals. Fritz will get a rematch with Sinner later in the week.
The other group starts play Monday with Carlos Alcaraz facing Casper Ruud and Alexander Zverev meeting Andrey Rublev.
The top two finishers from each round-robin group advance to the semifinals.