Tuesday delivered an eventful pair of semifinals matches in ATP 500 China Open. Jannik Sinner survived a battle against another top 10 player - Alex De Minaur, defeating the Aussie by 6-3 4-6 6-2. Learner Tien completed a sensational run into the final after a thrilling match against Daniil Medvedev. The 19-year-old was one game away from defeat in the chaotic second set. Medvedev is yet another victim of Beijing's injury plague, as the Russian withdrew after losing four games in the third set.
Sinner's 30th ATP Tour final
The Italian achieves an impressive milestone, making it into his 30th career final, extending the run of consecutive final appearances on hard courts to nine. He was a huge favorite over Alex De Minaur, having in mind the history of their previous meetings - Sinner won all 10 of them, where De Minaur managed to scrape just one set, followed by 8 consecutive straight set losses. On that day, Sinner was seemingly not at his best form, looking quite diminished physically in comparison to previous outings. De Minaur put up a very competitive fight over two sets, pushing Sinner under pressure and playing competitive rallies both on serve and return. That was not enough to take the opening set, but the world number 8 finally found his first break in the 10th game of the second set, which forced a decider. Despite making a few errors, especially struggling on the backhand side in the second set - Sinner stepped up in the crucial moment and dominated the opening phase of the decider, building the gap of a double break which stayed as the settling margin till the end. De Minaur executed his gameplan very well, not being shy to go deep on Sinner's second serves - at least in the first two sets. That got reflected in stats with 30 pressure points produced (in comparison to just 19 faced), including 12 breakpoint chances. However, Sinner was clutch in crucial moments, giving away just one breakpoint but the one which decided that the whole match went into the distance.
Tien survives the rollercoaster
In contrast to Sinner's milestone achievement, his Wednesday's opponent is at the start of the road, making it into his first ever ATP Tour final. Tien prevailed in a madness encounter against Daniil Medvedev, getting away with the victory over the former world number one for the second time after their epic match played in January's Australian Open. It was a rollercoaster ride with multiple momentum switches happening one after another. Medvedev grabbed the first set coming back from 0-3 down with a double break, to get into proper level and push Tien's every service game to take it by 7-5. The second set looked reversed - Medvedev led by 4-1 with one break, but Tien came back level on serve. The Russian regained control after the 8th game where he edged his younger opponent in long rallies to wait for the errors. Then, Medvedev failed to serve for the match with a couple of sluggish unforced errors which destabilized his game completely. Tien got his job done playing solidly since then, while Medvedev got totally uncalibrated, and seemingly struggled with injury issues. He was playing with tape on his thigh, also complaining about some uncomfortable pain in his wrist. Medvedev was off from the start of the third set, and withdrew after four easy games won by Tien. The teenager advanced into the final with the score 5-7 7-5 4-0.
Final preview
That will be the first ever meeting between Sinner and Tien. It's hard to find any arguments standing behind Tien in a battle against Sinner, however this week in Beijing taught us to expect the unexpected. Medvedev is another victim of the injury plague nagging the players after the entire season's fatigue. Sinner was also not looking physically at his best on Tuesday, however he is a huge favorite before Wednesday's final.
