Russia be a part of Italy in ATP Cup semis, hosts Australia keep alive

Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev received their respective singles matches on Wednesday to assist Russia be a part of Italy within the semi-finals of the team-based ATP Cup in Melbourne.
ATP Finals winner Medvedev took down Japan’s Kei Nishikori 6-2 6-4 after Rublev’s dominant 6-1 6-3 victory once more Yoshihito Nishioka, establishing Russia’s second victory in Group D after the aspect defeated Argentina on Tuesday.
“Semis is a big step,” Medvedev informed reporters. “Looking forward, really happy that we made it in both singles.”
Germany additionally boosted their probabilities of progressing to the final 4 by defeating Canada on the Rod Laver Arena in Group A to arrange a knockout tie towards defending champions Serbia on Thursday.
World quantity six Stefanos Tsitsipas levelled the Group B tie for Greece towards Australia with a 6-3 7-5 win over Alex de Minaur in entrance of a raucous crowd after John Millman gave the hosts the lead with a 6-2 6-3 win over Michail Pervolarakis.
John Peers and Luke Saville then clinched a 6-3 4-6 (10-5) doubles win over Tsitsipas and Pervolarakis to assist Australia win the tie 2-1 and maintain their semi-final hopes alive after Tuesday’s 3-0 drubbing by Spain.
With the second version of the competitors truncated due to Australian Open coronavirus quarantine, victory for Fabio Fognini and Matteo Berrettini within the singles mixed with Tuesday’s 2-1 win over Austria ensured Italy would high Group C.
Fognini downed Benoit Paire 6-1 7-6(2) within the opening match of the day on John Cain Arena earlier than Matteo Berrettini outwitted Gael Monfils 6-4 6-2 to make France’s doubles win educational.
If that conflict was one-sided, the Germany-Canada Group A tie was something however with 4 of the fives units within the two singles matches determined by tiebreakers.
Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff dominated the primary two and completed off Milos Raonic with a thumping ace for a 7-6(4) 7-6(2) victory that gave Germany a 1-0 lead of their opening tie.
After dropping 2-1 to Novak Djokovic’s Serbia on Tuesday, Canada wanted to win the tie to remain alive within the competitors and Denis Shapovalov made a constructive begin by taking the primary set towards Alexander Zverev.
Shapovalov, backing up after a loss to Djokovic, wanted therapy on his shoulder as world quantity seven Zverev levelled up the competition within the second set, nonetheless.
Zverev, in his first match of the 12 months, warmed to his process in a decent deciding set however was unable to transform seven break factors as Shapovalov dug deep.
Shapovalov had his possibilities within the decisive tiebreak however an unforced error and a double fault at essential moments opened the door for Zverev and the German stormed by it along with his 14th and fifteenth aces for a 6-7(5) 6-3 7-6(4) victory.
“Winning a team event, winning something for your country it’s one of the biggest things in our sport,” Zverev mentioned. “I think the ATP Cup is just as big as the Davis Cup right now.”