Germany's Alexander Zverev claims his second ATP Finals title in four years as he upsets Daniil Medvedev in Sunday's season-ending showpiece; Britain's Joe Salisbury suffers defeat in the doubles final earlier in the day
Sunday 21 November 2021 20:56, UK
Alexander Zverev upset defending champion Daniil Medvedev to claim the ATP Finals title for the second time in his career.
Zverev, who also beat world No 1 Novak Djokovic on Saturday, becomes only the fourth player to beat the top two players in the world in the semi-finals and final of the season-ending tournament.
The 6-4 6-4 victory was also sweet revenge for Zverev, who lost in three sets to Medvedev in the round robin stage and came into the match having lost his last five meetings against the Russian.
It was a near flawless display from the third seed, particularly on serve, with Medvedev not able to apply any real pressure during the contest.
It is a second title at the tournament in four years for 24-year-old Zverev, who also lifted the trophy at London's O2 in 2018.
The German, who won Olympic gold in the summer, said in his on-court interview: "It was great. I won the World Tour Finals in the final against a player I lost five times to in a row so I had to play one of my best matches. I'm happy about that, happy to be going on holidays with this win.
"There's no better way to end the season than winning here. I'm obviously incredibly happy but I'm also very much looking forward to next year already."
Joe Salisbury and Rajeev Ram were beaten by Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut in the doubles final.
Salisbury was the first British player to reach the doubles showpiece in the event's history and he was looking to emulate Andy Murray, who won the singles title in 2016.
He and American Ram, who have had another superb season, had narrowly beaten Herbert and Mahut in the group stages but the French duo were the better pair on the day and deserved their 6-4 7-6 (7-0) victory.
"It's obviously disappointing," said Salisbury. "It was a bit of a combination of them playing very well, I thought they served very well especially, and we didn't quite find it today, didn't play our best."
Salisbury is set to partner Neal Skupski for Great Britain in the upcoming Davis Cup finals, and their first match is expected to be against Herbert and Mahut in what could be a crucial rubber in the opening clash with France next Saturday.
He said: "Obviously we'll be expecting a very tough match. I'm confident I can definitely play better than I did today. We know whatever our team is for Davis Cup for the doubles, assuming it's against those guys, we're going to have to play very well to get the win. But I'm confident we can do that."
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