Medvedev strolls past Ruud to make Turin final

Daniil Medvedev booked his place in the final of the ATP Finals after cruising to a straight-sets 6-4, 6-2 win over Casper Ruud on Saturday.

World number two Medvedev will face either Novak Djokovic or Alexander Zverev in Sunday's final at the Pala Alpitour in Turin after breezing to victory over Norwegian Ruud.

Winner of the Finals last year, the 25-year-old has now won nine straight matches at the season-ending tournament and looked unruffled as he dealt with eighth seed Ruud, whose positive debut Finals comes to and end.

"It was a great match because I felt that watching Casper this year he's one of the smartest players on the tour," said Medvedev.

"It's a tough match no matter the score and I'm pleased that I managed to break him from time to time and this made the difference today."

Medvedev dropped just five points on his own serve on his way to claiming the first set, three of those coming in game four after he had already broken Ruud in the previous game.

The fact that the Russian did not have to defend a single break point highlighted the easy dominance he held over Ruud.

Medvedev ended Ruud's resistance when he broke serve at the third attempt in a long game five of the second set, a 13-point exchange which put him in the perfect position to close out the match.

He then cruised through his service game to make it 4-2 in the set and again piled the pressure on Ruud in the next game, eventually breaking again to set up an easy service game and close out the match.

He now has an evening to prepare for the final against Djokovic, who he beat in the US Open final in September, or Tuesday's opponent Zverev, vanquished in a three-set thiller in the Red Group.

"Sasha (Zverev) we just played a few days ago you know so tough to say anything special. Big serve, big shots, same forehand and backhand... all round player, runs well, hits well if he has an easy ball to play. Complete player," he told reporters.

"Same about Novak, not much to add... We know he's one of best returners in the world, he can run amazing, he can defend amazing, he did good in Paris he was pretty aggressive when he needed to be.

"I'm going to try to think about what they can do differently, what can I propose that they won't be aware of."

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