John McEnroe has described Daniil Medvedev as a ‘brilliant strategist’ and ‘chess master’ but is expecting his extended match times to catch up with him in today’s final against Jannik Sinner.
“He’s been known as a human backboard, but what he’s done is rather remarkable already,” McEnroe told Eurosport.
“I already thought of Daniil Medvedev as a chess master, a brilliant strategist, he did it once again [in the semi-final]. He shifted gears, changed his return position, started attacking more, serving bigger.
“He did everything to get back into the match but he’s played three five setters, Sinner has lost one set, so this would be truly remarkable if Medvedev can rise to the occasion once more, he’s got to be hurting physically.
“I sort of thought that against Zverev, that the difference was that Zverev was hurting and it caught up to him as the match wore on, but Sinner will be fresh and that is the difference to me.”
