Hamad Medjedovic wrapped up the best week of his young career with his biggest win, beating Arthur Fils in the championship match of the NextGen ATP Finals on Sunday night in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. In the abbreviated best-of-five format with tiebreakers played at 3-3, Medjedovic triumphed 3-4(6), 4-1, 4-2, 3-4(9), 4-1 after two hours and 10 minutes.
“I can’t believe I have won this title, but it’s going to give me a lot of confidence for 2024,” the 20-year-old Serb commented. “Arthur is an amazing player; he’s top 40 for a reason. So I’m really happy.
“It was tough after the first set. I changed my clothes and recovered and started to play [well] again. I didn’t play [well] when I had match points in the fourth set. I wasn’t relaxed; I was very stiff. Thank God I recovered and I was just trying to stay relaxed as much as I could and I managed to do it in the end.”
Medjedovic will still be in search of his first official ATP title in 2024, but this week might as well have announced his arrival on tour. The world No. 110 has won just seven matches at the ATP level in the early stages of his career, thus heading into Jeddah as a relative unknown. He promptly compiled a 5-0 record for the week, also beating Alex Michelsen, Luca Van Assche, Abudallah Shelbayh, and Dominic Stricker.
Fils ends the season ranked 36th in the world. The 19-year-old Frenchman’s 2023 campaign included a title in Lyon and a runner-up performance in Antwerp.
Next on Fils’ schedule, though, is a week of offseason training in Kuwait with Rafael Nadal.
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