Putin congratulates Medvedev for playing as “the great champions”

Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated tennis player Daniil Medvedev on Monday for his victory at the US Open by defeating the big favorite, Serbian Novak Djokovic, in the final on Sunday. “This is how great champions play!”he noted in a telegram.

Putin, whose predecessor in the Kremlin, Boris Yeltsin, was a great tennis fan, stressed that on the way to the final the Russian demonstrated a “very great class” and “persistence”. “In the decisive match (…) you didn't give your famous rival a chance”, he highlighted.

With that victory, Medvedev, 25, broke a 16-year drought without a Russian tennis player achieving a Grand Slam. The last to do so was Marat Safin, who won the 2005 Australian Open, his second major after the one achieved in the US in 2000.