Weekend Winners: Daniil Medvedev, Félix Auger-Aliassime converge, close in on Turin with title runs

WATCH: Medvedev clinched his return to the ATP Finals with a winning week at the Erste Bank Open.

Daniil Medvedev and Félix Auger-Aliassime have had strangely similar seasons.

Each appeared to be on the rise as the year began. Medvedev was coming off his first major title, at the 2021 US Open, while FAA had reached his first Slam semifinal at the same event. When they faced off in a five-set quarterfinal at the Australian Open in January, it seemed to be a harbinger of bigger matches and moments to come for both men. These were two unique and very different talents, and many of us hoped to see them blend their disparate styles and personalities in a future rivalry.

Instead, both nearly dropped off the map for large parts of the year. Medvedev had hernia surgery, was banned from Wimbledon, and didn’t win his first title of 2022 until August, in Los Cabos. Auger-Aliassime won his own first career title in Rotterdam, then lost in the opening round at Indian Wells and Miami; muddled through the clay season without making a semi; and lost his opener at Wimbledon.

The nadir for Medvedev and Auger-Aliassime came at the US Open. The top-seeded Medvedev didn’t look anything like a No. 1 player when he was drummed out of the tournament by Nick Kyrgios. If anything, Auger-Aliassime looked worse. Watching him lose in three one-sided sets to 20-year-old Jack Draper, I wondered if the men’s game was about to pass FAA by.

I guess I shouldn’t have wondered, about either guy. Fast forward to this Sunday and the picture has changed completely for both men.

That’s especially true for Auger-Aliassime. He bounced back from his Open debacle by beating Novak Djokovic in a key, final-day Laver Cup match. Since then, he has won three titles in three weeks, and 13 straight matches, one of which was a 6-3, 6-2 blowout victory over No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz on Saturday. All of which has him on the verge of making his trip to the ATP Finals, in Turin.

On Sunday in Basel, FAA beat Holger Rune, and completed a 500-level title run in which he didn’t drop his serve once. Auger-Aliassime has tried to hone his serve-plus-forehand over the last two seasons, and that work seems to have clicked in fully this fall.

“It’s been an amazing week,” Auger-Aliassime said. “Once again in the final, not getting broken all week…A long year, a long stretch of wins, and it’s not over.”

“He served probably the best I’ve ever played against, close to the line, so precise, over 200 kilometers per hour,” Rune marveled.

This is one of the best victories, when you know your opponent is on top of you, but you try and stay there and do what you can. Daniil Medvedev

Medvedev’s post-Open revival hasn’t been quite as spectacular or sustained as FAA’s, at least not yet. After losing to Stan Wawrinka in the first round in Metz, he split a pair of brilliant sets with Djokovic in Astana before suddenly pulling the plug and retiring with an adductor strain. This week in Vienna Medvedev announced that he’s a new father, and then played his best tournament of the year. He took out Dominic Thiem and Jannik Sinner in straight sets, and hung in long enough against a hot-hitting Denis Shapovalov to steal away with his second title of 2022 in three sets.

“This match was the best of the week because Denis was really playing unreal until probably 4-3 in the second set,” Medvedev said. “He dropped his level by maybe two percent and I was able to use it.”

“This is one of the best victories, when you know your opponent is on top of you, but you try and stay there and do what you can.”

Where Auger-Aliassime has been controlling matches with his serve and forehand, Medvedev won on Sunday by defending every inch of the court. That kind of patience under adversity, and ultimate confidence in his own consistency, is what took him to No. 1, and it’s what has been missing from his game for much of 2022.

Where do Medvedev and Auger-Aliassime go from here? To start, they’ll head to Paris for the Rolex Masters this week. They could soon find themselves across a net from each other; the Russian and the Canadian are scheduled to face off in the quarterfinals.

For Medvedev, it will be a chance to win a title he claimed in 2020, and which he surrendered to Djokovic in the 2021 final.

“I like to play indoor hard courts at the end of the season,” Medvedev said. “I feel that I do a great job with my team not to arrive burnt out. I am looking forward to the last two tournaments of the year which are really important and I usually play well.”

For Auger-Aliassime, it will be a chance to clinch a spot in Turin and extend a career-best win streak.

“Hopefully I can keep going,” FAA said in Basel. “Right now I’m feeling all the good emotions that come with winning a tournament. It’s amazing.”

Ten months after their Australian Open clash, Medvedev and Auger-Aliassime have climbed a good way back up the mountain-top, and dispelled any notions of their imminent decline. Maybe we’ll see them blend their disparate styles in a top-tier rivalry, after all.