ATP Cup 2021: Russia, Italy Advance to Final with Semifinal Sweeps

Russia and Italy have advanced to the ATP Cup Final after a pair of semifinal sweeps in Australia's Melbourne Park.

Russia defeated Germany in a pair of singles matches to take its semifinal matchup, 2-0. Andrey Rublev defeated Jan-Lennard Struff 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, and Daniil Medvedev also won a three-setter, beating Alexander Zverev 3-6, 6-3, 7-5.

Rublev was simply dominant after a 6-3 loss in the first set, taking 12 of the next 15 games for the win. Struff only had more than one point on one occasion when Rublev served in the second and third sets.

Medvedev's shot of the match came via this lob, which helped him overcome an early one-set deficit:

Zverev was not an easy foe, though, performing this wizardry in the first set:

Italy also won via sweep, with Fabio Fognini overcoming Pablo Carreno Busta 6-2, 1-6, 6-4.

Matteo Berrettini earned the only straight-set semifinal win, taking down Roberto Bautista Agut 6-3, 7-5.

Berrettini's win featured some excellent tennis with highlights from both players:

Berrettini earned the straight-set win after breaking Bautista Agut with the second set tied at five. He held serve in response to send Italy to the final.

Both semifinals were best-of-three matchups. The tiebreaker, if necessary, would have gone down to a doubles match, which is being played regardless of the 2-0 results.

The Italy-Russia winner will be the second-ever ATP Cup champion, with Serbia winning the first-ever version of the event last year. The final will feature some sensational matchups, as Jose Morgado of the Diario Record tweeted:

This year's ATP Cup featured 12 teams split into four groups, with the winners of each group advancing to the semifinals. Germany, Italy and Russia all went 2-0, and Spain advanced via a tiebreaker after going 1-1.