The year 2019 saw 6 players lift the 9 Masters 1000 tournaments. While Nadal, Djokovic and Medvedev held 2 Masters Trophies each, Federer, Thiem and Fognini won one each this season. However, there were many upsets during these tournaments where the even the biggest were made to bite the dust and the underdogs came at the top. Let’s look back at 3 biggest upsets during the 2019 Masters series events.
Medvedev Beats Djokovic: Cincinnati Semifinal
Novak Djokovic and Daniil Medvedev met 3 times in 2019. IT WAS THE Russian who scored 2 wins against the Serb great and lost only one match. The biggest of these wins came at Cincinnati 2019 where Djokovic was the defending champion. Novak also was on song having already won the Wimbledon Championships and a big favorite to win his 2nd Cincinnati title.
The 1st set went to the Serb who then looked en route to the final. The Russian however would not go down without a fight. He leveled the match after winning the 2nd set after coming back from a break down. In the 3rd Medvedev broke midway and then held his serve to clinch the match. Medvedev went to the finals and also lifted the trophy a day later.
Thiem Beats Federer: Indian Wells Final
The 2019 Indian Wells final was truly one of the matches of this year. Dominic Thiem who more has been known for his clay court heroics met the great Roger Federer. The Swiss was the 2017 champion and 2018 finalist at Indian Wells and looked to add yet another title to his tally.
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Federer was up and running wining the 1st set with relative ease and looking to rush through. Thiem however managed to reverse the tide and take the 2nd set. It would now be a one set shutout for the title. Both players held their serve till the later stages but it was Thiem who broke in the closing stage of the set and took the match and title to win his 1st Masters 1000 title.
Fognini Beats Nadal: Monte Carlo Semi-final
Rafa Nadal the 12 time champion at Monte Carlo had raced to the semis without dropping even a set. Facing him was the talented Italian Fabio Fognini who also looked in great touch and had defeated players like Zverev and Coric en route to the semifinal. This however was a test of wholly different proportions.
Nadal started off expectedly dominant breaking the Fognini serve early in the 1st set. The Italian then suddenly raised his game and Nadal’s game began to drop a bit. Fognini got the break back and then broke the Nadal serve to win the 1st set.
The 2nd set saw even more surprises with Fognini breaking the Rafa serve twice. At 5-1 when the Italian was serving for the match Nadal broke back to reduce the deficit. The Spaniard however was unable to hold his next game and faced defeat in 2 sets. This would be the most shocking upset of 2019 and Rafa Nadal’s 18 consecutive wins were put to a halt by Fabio Fognini.