Daniil Medvedev hints at long term rivalry outside of the ‘The Big 3’ with Dominic Thiem

A rivalry match to look forward to, ‘outside of the ‘The Big 3’ in tennis,’ has not been considered as such nor had it emerged until Dominic Thiem and Daniil Medvedev, the two players who went past World No.1, Novak Djokovic and next in rank, Rafael Nadal in their respective semi-finals of the same ATP Final edition to set up a non ‘Big 3’ title clash for the second consecutive year.

The match on Sunday marked the fifth encounter between World No.3 and World No.4. Thiem, who lost to Medvedev in his second consecutive final of the season-ending event, leads in their head to head 3-2, with all of their matches coming in the past 2 years.

Medvedev, when asked whether he enjoys when opponents bring out the best in him and if he sees a long and healthy rivalry with Austrian, Dominic Thiem, he said, “Hopefully. “We can only reflect on this when we are 35 and maybe we will have a head-to-head of 20-20. At this moment, as we both said at the (ATP Finals) ceremony, we really hope to be playing more great finals like this.”

The two players had last played against each other in the US Open’s semi-final back in September. Here, Thiem won in three sets and eventually went on to lift the trophy and become a Grand Slam champion for the first time.

Recalling that semi-final in New York, Medvedev hopes to compete the same way with Thiem on the biggest stages of tennis.

”For example, at the US Open, we played in the semifinals. The match was also really close and it went his way. He was better there and got his first Slam. So hopefully, we can have more matches on the big stages, hopefully with some crowds as well, against Dominic Thiem,” Medvedev said.

Thiem and Medvedev, after finishing one behind another on the ATP charts as World No.3 and 4 respectively, it is certain that they would be drawn to play only in the crucial stages of the tournaments in the future.

This is great news for tennis lovers with the onset of a new rivalry being formed to keep up the spirit of the game, outside of the ‘The Big 3’ who are approaching the last few years on the court.