Tennis is brilliant! The world is brilliant! Here comes the match tiebreak at 6-6 in the fifth!
At 15-all, Tien spanks yet another backhand winner down the line, then Medvedev goes long! Two break-back points and does this match have anything left to amaze us?
Another long rally and Medvedev, a different man after the break, hauls a forehand on to the line; Tien can only net in response! Medvedev has the break and will now serve for an amazing match at 6-5 in the fifth!
Immediately, Medvedev uncorks a filthy forehand winner, then Tien strays long ceding two break-points in the process…
The rain has stopped and the court has been dried so off we go again: it’s 2-2 5-5 15-15.
What were you up to at 19? I was getting stabbed outside a club, which is, of course, all that stopped me from displaying my beautiful soul to amaze the world on a tennis court. We see excellent young players all the time – Jakub Mensik, for example, beat Casper Ruud what seems like last month but was, I think, yesterday. He may well go on to win majors too, but what’s different about Tien – and, indeed about Fonseca – is the impossibility of their game intelligence. They are going to win all sorts, and theirs could be the next great rivalry.
Gosh, it’s absolutely teeming, and this’ ll now take a while – we’ve to cover and dry the court while, all the while these two legends stiffen and tense.
Whaaaaaat?! With Tien serving at 15-all, it’s started to rain. How dare it! Does it not know what’s going on here?!
Are you kidding me! Tien goes down the line and Medvedev, back to court, legs akimbo, somehow invents a backhand that spins him round and passes Tien for a winner! I’ve never seen anything like that before and another gorgeous backhand follows, ending a 27-stroke rally from another position that’s in no calisthenic textbook. We’re level at 5-5 in the fifth!
Here comes Medevdev, and he sends a forehand down the line wide and plenty! But Tien twice nets forehands, the second time to end another rally that has me gasping for air, then another, and this time it’s Medvedev who blinks, thwacking a backhand wide! At 30-all, Tien is two points away!
Yet another beautiful winner down the line is backed up by a forehand cross-court, and does Tien look the stronger boy man now? I think he might, but at 40-15 he nets, the pressure upped … so he spans a service-winner down the T, and at 5-4 in the fifth he’s a game away! I absolutely love the way he plays – you can almost see his brain working, he’s thinking so hard, and yet at the same time he’s also so natural. Medvedev will now serve to stay in the competition!
Medvedev opens with an ace, then another, and Tien doesn’t move. But at 40-0, he doesn’t have to, punishing a forehand return down the line for yet another winner; find you someone who loves you as much as he loves that angle. But from there, Medvedev, though he makes a further error for 40-30, closes out for 4-4 and I’ve not a clue who’s going to win this. It’s an absolute ripper.
Somehow, Tien makes 30-15, and there follows a point so disgustingly physical i feel nauseous. Then, just as it looks like it might never end, Medvedev dredges a forehand winner from the depths of his soul … before a brilliantly cunning backhand from Tien, inventing an angle to break the sideline, earns him game-point. So a further long exchange unfolds, Medvedev hits wide, and the kid leads 4-3!
During change of ends, let’s take a moment to reflect o exactly what we’re seeing, because we shouldn’t become blasé. These two have been going more than five hours now, and the drive, love, suffering and imagination it takes to do that is something beyond the comprehension of the rest of us. I am in awe. But back they come, Tien making 0-15 before an ace and a service-winner give Medvedev the advantage, and from there he quickly closes out with a booming forehand winner down the line. He’s playing more aggressively now and looks to have assumed control … but we’ve said that before. It’s 3-3in the fifth.
My screen crashes, returning for me to see it’s 30-all and another freakishly long rally. Momentum shifts this way and that before Tien nets and break point is much shorter, Tien again netting. He still leads, 3-2 up in the fifth, but we’re back on serve.
Tien blocks back a forehand that lands close to the line, then a double makes 0-30. Pressure! For both! And again, Medvedev finds a telling serve when he needs one, high-kicking and out wide, before a lovely backhand, moving away from the ball, confuses everyone but him and that’s 30-all. But what’s this?! A rally, Tien moving nicely, and an error from Medvedev means break point! Another sapping, painful exchange follows, neither man going for too much … THEN MEDVEDEV GOES LONG! TIEN BREAKS MEDVEDEV FOR 3-1 IN SET FIVE AND HE’S THREE HOLD AWAY FROM A FAMOUS WIN!
The win-percentage-calculator has Tien at 24, which seems generous. But though the rallies are long, Medvedev isn’t sending him from corner to corner very often, so he’s not running that much or that hard. And at 15-0 a classic one-two, serve into one corner, forehand into the other, makes 30-0, and second later the love-hold is secure. I am in awe of what we’re seeing here, the desire and focus to keep at it equally as impressive as the more incendiary tennis of the first two sets. Medvedev isn’t paying that well, and Tien will, I’m sure, be fancying his chances more than 10 minutes ago; he leads 2-1.
Tien is moving better than in the fourth set but not as well as in the third, and he’s not giving out the same grief on second serve. So Medvedev makes 40-0 … but then a terrific return and long forehand give him something to ponder. Another revolting rally ensures, but then the youngster slices long and that’s 1-1 in the fifth.
You’d think Tien needs to try and hit winners, assuming his mobility isn’t what it was. He looks alright enough at the moment, playing his normal game, but the kind of forehand that was going in earlier on his just long now, handing Medvedev 30-all, then a slice also drops long. And I guess tennis is a mentally as well as physically sapping endeavour, the concentration that keeps balls in play fading alongside the ability to hit and run as hard. Still, Tien saves break point only to immediately face another; a brutally long rally unfolds, he sticks in it, and it’s Medvedev who blinks first, hitting long! Goodness me, I don’t know about them but I’m exhausted, and after yet another extended exchange we’re back at deuce. And I don’t even know what to tell you any more, 33 strokes before Medvedev errs, and this might be a glitch in his system; he’s not winning all the long rallies, maybe not even half of them, and at the end of another, he nets! Tien holds for 1-0 in the fifth, and what does he have left to give on return?
So for anyone coming late, this is the score: Tien 6-3 7-6 6-7 1-6 Medvedev.
Medvedev is back and off we go; let’s see what the kid has left, for we know the older man has plenty.
I say that, but of course Medvedev disappears, leaving Tien on court to stiffen yet further. I’m not ruling him out because I’ve seen enough to know he can confound us all, but his speed is a crucial part of his game and if it’s gone, he’s relying on serving like God.
What a fantastic match this has been. We saw Medvedev outlast Kasidit Samrej in round one, and in prolonging the rallies in set two, that was probably on his mind. But to attribute the entirety of how he was playing to tactics does Tien’s brilliance a disservice – he was so patient and decisive, such that Medvedev didn’t know what to do with him. But the no 5 seed is in charge now, holding to love, and here comes a decider!
Tien finds himself down 30-40 and will want to serve first in the fifth, so hits consecutive winners because the ball arrives at where he happens to be; he’d not have chased them down. Then Medvedev drags a return wide, so will now have to serve for the set at 5-1.
Source: theguardian.com
