Medvedev and Rublev, heading towards a third Salad Bowl

The Russian battleship, with two top-ten at the controls, will storm the Davis Cup title against Croatia tomorrow (16:00, Let’s go). Andrey Rublev y Daniil Medvedev they expressly resolved the semifinal against Germany. First, Rublev needed only 49 minutes to finish Dominik Koepfer 6-4 6-0. And with the red carpet rolled out, Daniil Medvedev clinched the victory in 1h 06 against Jan-Lennard Struff by a double 6-4.

The Russian Federation (competes under that name for the sanction of the World Anti-Doping Agency to the country) will seek its third Salad Bowl, after the titles of 2002 and 2006. The last final they played was in 2007. Germany ended their journey with almost no opposition. With the resignation of Alexander Zverev, number three in the world who does not participate because he is contrary to the new format, he did enough to get into the semifinals.

From the outset, the best Rublev appeared at the best time to give Russia the first point. The number five in the world, in a Madrid Arena that was filling up little by little to end with a good atmosphere, He made his best game of the finals to defeat Dominik Koepfer in straight sets.

The Stakhanovist Rublev (24 years old), in high demand all week, found peace against Koepfer (27 and 54º). The Muscovite based in Barcelona with Fernando Vicente was playing his fourth individual match (he only lost to Feliciano López) and had also taken part in two doubles. He is the cement of the team of the inscrutable Shamil Tarpischev (73 years old), the eternal captain who served the 100th tie in front of the Davis Cup team. In 2019, when they lost in the semifinals, he already made him play eight games in a team in which Medvedev was not.

Left-hander Koepfer didn’t see them coming to Rublev. A break for 2-1 served to get the sleeve back on track. In the second, the Russian overwhelmed the German with three more breaks. The party had no history. It was a monologue.

With the wind in his favor, Medvedev gave no choice to surprise. The world number two only made two unforced errors in the first round (six in total), he won 83% of points with firsts and 80% with second. Inaccessible to Struff (31 years and 51º). Yes, the russian He did not know how to obtain the favor of the Madrid stands for the final against Croatia. When he served to win, Struff had a break ball against him and the spectators cheered on the German so that the game did not end so soon. Medvedev neutralized her and celebrated her victory with a gesture, asking for calm, which the public took as a challenge. Then he justified it: “It is a joke that we have in the team when we play cards. A celebration that we saw Cristiano Ronaldo do. I am surprised that they took it badly.”