WATCH: Daniil Medvedev loses his cool with Turin crowd

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Daniil Medvedev
Daniil Medvedev of Russia argues with a spectator during the semi-final of the ATP World Tour Finals.

It seemed almost inevitable that Daniil Medvedev would run afoul of the Turin crowd as he met home favourite Jannik Sinner.

Medvedev fought back from a set down to push the match into a decider but couldn’t complete the comeback as Sinner ramped up his game in the third.

Sinner needed to be at his best throughout the two-hour, 29-minute fight to defeat Medvedev, who is known for his toughness.

Crucially, the 22-year-old responded well to the setback of losing the second-set tie-break, marching through the decider to finish a triumph in which he won 83% (50/60) of games off his first serve.

While Medvedev had his back to the wall, he also got into it with the crowd.

With the crowd positively hissing at Medvedev, he exchanged words and a few gestures with the crowd.

Medvedev settled in quicker to Saturday’s afternoon semi-final. The World No. 3 dominated the early baseline exchanges and created the match’s first break point in the third game. Sinner, on the other hand, stood steady and then found a high-quality moment in the following game that seemed to flip a switch inside him.

Sinner hammered a massive backhand down-the-line winner as Medvedev was serving at 40/0, and the home favourite knocked off the four points that followed to gain a key break. The Italian, who broke from 40/0 down earlier this week against Djokovic, dialled in on serve and appeared unfazed as he went on to win the first set, winning 89 percent (17/19) of points behind his first serve.

Despite this setback, Medvedev continued to press Sinner with his typical consistency and deep groundstrokes into the second set, but the Italian showed no signs of weakness. Sinner defeated Medvedev at his own game for two critical points in a row, outlasting the World No 3 in long baseline rallies, at 3-4 and 15/30 on his own serve. Notwithstanding the fact that he still had a break point at an advantage, the Italian dug deep to escape the game.

Medvedev’s perseverance was rewarded in the second-set tie-break, when he took advantage of a quick start to force a tiebreaker and dampen the emotions of the home supporters. Nonetheless, the 26-year-old was unable to carry that momentum into the third set. He saved two break points from 0-1, 15/40, but when confronted with a third in the same game, he gambled on a massive second serve and went long, handing Sinner an early edge.

Medvedev often uses clashes with the crowd to fire himself up but this time it appeared to backfire with the Turin crowd getting right behind Sinner as he soared into the final.

READ MORE: Novak Djokovic snaps back at disrespect towards Jannik Sinner and Holger Rune

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