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World number one Jannik Sinner continued his perfect start at the ATP Finals with a dominant win over Russian Daniil Medvedev.
Playing on home soil in Turin, Sinner won 6-3 6-4 to top the Ilie Nastase group with three wins from three.
Sinner’s place in the semi-finals had earlier been confirmed by Taylor Fritz’s 5-7 6-4 6-3 defeat of Alex de Minaur.
He returned the favour by seeing off Medvedev, with the Russian needing to beat Sinner in straight sets if he was to qualify ahead of American Fritz.
Sinner and Fritz will discover their semi-final opponents on Friday with Carlos Alcaraz, Alexander Zverev, Casper Ruud and Andrey Rublev still able to qualify.
“No preference [on who I play]. Whoever it is going to be on the other side of the net I will try to play the best tennis I can,” Sinner told Sky Sports.
Top seed Sinner has yet to drop a set in Turin as he seeks an impressive end to a year in which he has won his first two Grand Slam titles, but also been embroiled in an ongoing doping controversy.
“I’m here, I know what I have achieved during this year so I try to step on court with a good mindset,” Sinner said in his on-court interview.
“I have a good team around me. I have beautiful people around me who support me daily and wish for me.”
The Australian and US Open champion dropped just two points on serve during the first set as Medvedev was undone by 17 unforced errors.
Sinner broke for a 5-3 lead before serving out the opener and carried his momentum into the second, striking first again.
Medvedev responded to move level at 3-3, but more unforced errors proved costly for the fourth seed and Sinner took advantage to break at 4-4, much to the delight of the partisan crowd.
A winner of seven ATP Tour titles in 2024, the Italian calmly served out the match for his 68th win from 74 matches.
“I’m here trying to find new ways to improve as a player. I’m here trying to win as many as matches as I can,” Sinner added.
Fritz fights back to beat De Minaur
Earlier on Thursday, Australia’s De Minaur needed to defeat fifth seed Fritz in straight sets for any chance of progressing to the semi-finals in Turin.
However, his hopes were crushed when Fritz stole the second set against the run of play.
The US Open finalist had to wait to learn his last four fate, which was confirmed when Medvedev conceded the opening set to Sinner.
“All of us are pretty beat up but if I’m in the semi-finals of the world tour finals then I’ve got energy to give,” said Fritz after his win.
Seventh seed De Minaur, although labouring through his opening service games, was the first to break when he ended a superb rally with a clever cross-court winner for a 4-3 lead.
Fritz was quick to respond, levelling in the next game before De Minaur broke again and served out the opening set as his opponent became increasingly frustrated, complaining to the umpire about flash photography in the arena.
The US Open runner-up had to fend off two break points in the second set, while De Minaur, in comparison, looked comfortable on serve with three love holds.
That was until Fritz increased his intensity and seized his opportunity at 5-4 to end De Minaur’s season.
With his tournament essentially over, De Minaur continued to falter as Fritz surged and he wrapped up the victory with an ace after two hours and eight minutes.
“He was all over me. What I did a great job of was towards the end of the second set I started to find my serve, I started serving much better,” Fritz said.
“It just gave me a little bit of comfort to stay in the match and not be under so much pressure. It was still incredibly tough.”
Meanwhile, Britain’s Henry Patten and his partner Harri Heliovaara of Finland made it three wins from three in the doubles group stage.
The pair, who won Wimbledon together in July, fought back to win 4-6 6-3 12-10 against 2020 champions Nikola Mektic and Wesley Koolhof, who was playing his last ATP Tour match.
Patten and Heliovaara had already secured their place in the semi-finals and will learn their last-four opponents on Friday.
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