ATP: Chung is also perfect for the Milan finals

Hyeon Chung followed Andrey Rublev into the final of the first edition of the #NextGen-Master in Milan: The Korean defeated Daniil Medvedev after a vicious match in five sets.

Four break points at a time – the tennis pros know this only from the doubles games on the regular ATP tour, where the “no-ad” rule applies. This also applies to the first match of the #NextGen-Master in Milan, where Hyeon Chung not only took advantage of the first of his four chances in the fourth game of the first round, but also of most of the other available ones.

At the end of the match against Daniil Medvedev there was a 4-1,4-1,3-4 (4), 1-4 and 4-0 win for the Korean, who will meet Andrey Rublev from Russia in the Saturday final. In the first match of the evening with Borna Coric he had only had problems in the second round.

Medvedev missed four chances to take the lead with a break for the first time at the beginning of the third set – and immediately gave up his serve with mostly slight mistakes. However, the 21-year-old Russian, who lives and trains in France, had not yet given up, but finally caught up with Chung’s service 1:2 for the first time, equalled with a finely presented net attack. And got the tiebreak, even though Chung was able to catch up a 4-1 deficit.

In the fourth set, Hyeon Chung took the lead again with a break, but not a single game should win after that. The decision had to be made in the fifth round – and Chung also took the lead with a break. This time Medvedev was unable to take advantage of four chances for an instant comeback, the last one was stuck on the edge of the net. At 3-0, Chung first missed the first match point with the backhand longline, but with an emotional passing ball, the Korean entered the final of Milan after almost two hours.

Like Rublev, Chung has won all the games in Milan. The Korean’s best results came last spring, with the quarter-finals in Barcelona, where Chung successively defeated Philipp Kohlschreiber and Alexander Zverev, and the semi-finals in Munich.

On Saturday, Medvedev and Coric will play a more familiar role in the Olympic Games: the two losers of the semi-finals will play out third place in the tournament.