Daniil Medvedev serves up victory at ATP Cup, sending Russia to the semi-finals

Russian tennis ace Daniil Medvedev has ensured his team’s participation in the ATP Cup semi-finals after beating Kei Nishikori in straight sets 6-2, 6-4, moving Russia to 2-0 in its tie against Japan.

The world no. 4 displayed a solid game against his Japanese rival, hammering in nine aces and breaking Nishikori on five occasions to seal a confident win in one hour and 17 minutes.

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Medvedev has extended his impressive winning streak on the ATP tour that has included two back-to-back titles at the Rolex Paris Masters and Nitto ATP Finals.

“[I am] really happy for the team,” Medvedev said after the match, adding that reaching the semi-finals “is a big step.”

He said he was “really happy that we made it in both singles,” and that the matches were straight sets.

“So really happy for the team and hopefully we can go further than that,” he added.

This was the second straight win for team Russia in group D, as earlier in the day Andrey Rublev dispatched Yoshihito Nishioka 6-1, 6-3 to take an early lead for his team.

Russia has advanced to the ATP Cup round of the last four for the second year in a row.

At last year’s event, the team reached the semi-final with an unbeaten 4-0 record. However, the players failed to propel themselves to the decisive stage of the tournament after being beaten by the eventual winners, team Serbia, led by world no.1 Novak Djokovic.

The two teams could potentially face each other again at the same stage of this year’s tournament, as Russia will face the winner of Group A where Serbia plays against Germany.