MARSEILLE, March 14, 2021
Daniil Medvedev clinched his 10th title on the ATP Tour, winning the Open 13 Provence hosted by the Palais de Sports de Marseille in France. The top seed from Russia battled past local favourite Pierre-Hugues Herbert 6-4, 6-7(4), 6-4 in Sunday’s singles final.
Medvedev, who defeated Egor Gerasimov from Belarus, Italian teen sensation Jannik Sinner and Matthew Ebden from Australia on his way to the championship match, struck 13 aces and won 83 per cent of his first-service points to secure victory in two hours and 11 minutes.
PERFECT 10 🌟@DaniilMedwed captures his tenth career title, defeating Herbert 6-4 6-7 6-4 to win Marseille!@Open13 pic.twitter.com/UNoH7oYpXU
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) March 14, 2021
“I am really happy about the number 10. It gets me to two digits, something which I dreamt of when I was a kid,” said Medvedev. “I think it is already a great number, but I am going to try to work more and get some more… I really like to play on hard courts. I feel like that is where my game suits me the best. I feel like I know the solutions I have to find during the match and that is what I did today.”
Medvedev pocketed in Southern France €27,615 in prize money as well as 250 ATP Ranking points. He will become the new World No. 2, only the fifth since 25 July 2005, when the new ATP Rankings will be released on Monday.
“I am really happy,” said Medvedev. “I knew that I would become No. 2 no matter what on Monday… It is always better when you step up the Rankings when you do something great. I know that winning here didn’t give me the points to become No. 2, but it is great for the self-esteem that just before becoming No. 2 on Monday, I win a tournament.”
Glasspool/Heliovaara win maiden ATP Tour title
Earlier in the day, Lloyd Glasspool and Harri Heliovaara clinched their first ATP Tour title. The British-Finnish combination defeated Sander Arends and David Pel from the Netherlands 7-5, 7-6(4) in the doubles final. The encounter lasted one hour and 25 minutes.
“At this age, at 31 years old, playing my third ATP Tour main draw, you can’t ask for more than a title,” said Heliovaara. “It feels unbelievable. I still have tears in my eyes and it has been 20 minutes since the match finished. It is a dream come true and it gives us so many opportunities for the future… It is unreal. I still can’t really describe it.”
The pair has achieved consistent success on the ATP Challenger Tour since they started to team up in November 2020. Glasspool and Heliovaara have reached four finals together at Challenger level, including their triumph in Gran Canaria last month.
“We have played and won a lot of matches this year on the ATP Challenger Tour,” said Glasspool. “We know each other’s games very well right now. We are flowing and that gives us a big advantage.”
“We got so much confidence from the matches on the ATP Challenger Tour,” said Heliovaara. “It doesn’t matter if we are playing a bigger tournament now, we still feel like we can win every match so that is a great feeling to have that confidence from winning a lot of matches.”
