When Alexander Zverev first began to work his way up the ATP rankings as a precocious teenager tipped for greatness, Daniil Medvedev was nowhere to be seen. Medvedev took far longer than his peers to emerge at the top of his sport, and even when he finally did, he was an afterthought compared to those with flashier games and years of hype.

Having arrived at the top though, though, Medvedev has established himself as the very best of his generation, and late on Friday night he delivered another statement victory as he recovered from two sets down to reaching the Australian Open final with a brilliant 5-7, 3-6, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5), 6-3 win over Zverev.

As he looks to finally clinch his second grand-slam title three years after his first at the US Open in 2021, Medvedev will face Jannik Sinner after the Italian’s four set defeat of Novak Djokovic, the top seed and defending champion. Medvedev’s third Australian Open final and sixth grand slam final overall will be his first against a player other than the Serb or Rafael Nadal.

Another victory for Medvedev over Zverev is further evidence of the significant mental edge he has built over the German. While Zverev dominated their first four meetings, the Russian has methodically turned their head-to-head around and he has now won 11 of their last 13 meetings.

There was once a time when two 6ft 6in men on the same court meant nothing but enormous serving and two-shot rallies, but today some of the tallest players on tour are the best athletes. Instead of booming first strike tennis, Zverev and Medvedev settled behind the baseline and battled to see who could out defend and outlast the other. The German was rewarded for his willingness to look for solutions as he closed down the net in order to successfully exploit the vast space and angles left by Medvedev’s deep court position.

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Trailing by two sets, physically hurting and on his way out, Medvedev finally opted to change his tactics. He abandoned his deep court positioning, moving closer to the baseline, taking the ball earlier and taking time away from Zverev. As he also found greater rhythm on his serve, forced a tiebreak and then took control.

Just as it seemed like the momentum had shifted, Medvedev found himself in massive trouble. At 4-4 in the fourth set tiebreak, he double faulted to hand over the mini-break and send Zverev to within two points of victory on his own serve. With his back to the wall again, Medvedev sprung into action. He followed up a brilliant forehand winner with a stroke of genius – a drop shot return winner off Zverev’s first serve. He then closed out the set with an ace.

By the final set, as Zverev struggled physically and lost all confidence in his strokes, the writing was on the wall. The decisive, predictable break for Medvedev came at 2-2 on Zverev’s serve as the German’s forehand fell apart. The world No 3 snatched the only service break in the final set and marched through his own service games to secure an incredible win.

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