SOFIA, February 10, 2019
Daniil Medvedev is the champion of the 2019 Sofia Open. The 22-year-old Russian wins his fourth ATP Tour career title after a 6-4, 6-3 final victory over Marton Fucsovics of Hungary on Sunday afternoon at Arena Armeec.
Medvedev sent down six aces, winning 70 per cent of his first service points. He broke his opponent four times to seal victory in one hour and 21 minutes.
Medvedev went 3-0 in finals last year (Sydney, Winston-Salem, and Tokyo) and picked up his first title of the season after a finalist showing in Brisbane in January.
FOUR-MIDABLE 🏆
A fourth ATP title in 13 months for @DaniilMedwed, as he downs Fucsovics 6-4 6-3 in Sofia! #SofiaOpen pic.twitter.com/NLbAgPBHG0
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) 10. Februar 2019
“I was feeling under pressure and really nervous, so I’m really happy that I managed to win the title,” said Medvedev. “Marton was playing good and was making some great shots, so I needed to stay present [in] every moment of the match and that’s what I did.”
Medvedev takes away 250 ATP Ranking points and €90,390 in prize money for his efforts this week. Fucsovics picks up 150 ATP Ranking points and €48,870.
“Daniil is a very tough player. He’s improved a lot and has the potential to break into the Top 10,” said Fucsovics, who appeared in his second ATP Tour final. “He was serving well today [and] was very consistent from the baseline. He didn’t give me any easy mistakes. This is still one of the best weeks of my career and I’m very happy to be back in the Top 40 again.”
Mektic/Melzer take maiden team title
Earlier in the day, Nikola Mektic of Croatia and Austrian veteran Jürgen Melzer lifted their first team title. They defeated Cheng-Peng Hsieh from Taipei and Christopher Rungkat from Indonesia 6-2, 4-6, 10-2 in the doubles final. The encounter lasted one hour and seven minutes.
“After coming back from elbow surgery and being out of the Top 100 for such a long time… there is nothing better that can happen to me than winning a title early in the year,” said Melzer.
“I am very happy to win the title,” added Mektic. “Last May was my last final, so it is very good to be in a final and win again… It is going to be good motivation for the rest of the season.
“We have had some tough battles [this week]. We saved [three] match points in [the quarter-finals] but we came out strong in the end and I have to thank Jurgen again for playing with me. It was a great week.”
