Daniil Medvedev defeated 20-year-old Holger Rune 7-5, 7-5 on Sunday at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia to win his maiden clay-court trophy and sixth ATP Masters 1000 title.
The 27-year-old came out and put up a solid, clean-hitting performance after the final's start was delayed by an hour and 40 minutes due to rain. On the red clay in Rome, he sat deep behind the baseline and took the strain, twice coming back from a break down in the second set against the seventh seed Rune, who was attempting to capture his second Masters 1000 championship.
Prior to this season, Medvedev had not won a game in his previous three trips to Rome. However, he also defeated 2022 semifinalist Stefanos Tsitsipas and 2017 champion Alexander Zverev in the Italian city, where he played some of his finest clay-court tennis. He is first in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin and is up to No. 2 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings after earning his 39th win of the season in one hour and 41 minutes.