Medvedev defends Almaty, and does it from a set down

Two. That is how many Almaty titles Daniil Medvedev now owns, both in a row. He beat Nikoloz Basilashvili 6-7 6-1 6-3 on Sunday to defend the title he won in 2025, after losing the opening set in a tiebreak.

The numbers behind it are lopsided. Medvedev hit 22 aces to Basilashvili's 3, held all 14 of his service games and saved both break points he faced. He hit 26 winners against 20 unforced errors; Basilashvili finished with 16 winners and 37 errors. Medvedev won 93 of the 169 points played, Basilashvili 76.

The first set went the other way. It reached 6-6 and the tiebreak went to Basilashvili 8-6, so Medvedev trailed by a set. From there he conceded only four more games. He took the second set 6-1 and the third 6-3, breaking serve in each and never giving up his own. Basilashvili saved five of the eight break points he faced, but he could not find a way back into the match once the first set was gone.

It is Medvedev's fourth title of 2026, after Brisbane, Dubai and Hangzhou, and it came as the top seed. At 30 and ranked 5th, his season record is 48-17. He reached the final by beating Sho Shimabukuro and Terence Atmane, then Alexander Bublik in the semi-final, who retired after losing the first set 6-3. The head-to-head with Basilashvili now stands at 2-0, after their only earlier meeting, Vienna in 2022, which Medvedev won 6-2 6-2. For Basilashvili, 34 and ranked 128th, the week was still a strong one: he beat Marin Cilic, Facundo Diaz Acosta, Adrian Mannarino and seventh seed Stefanos Tsitsipas to reach the final. His last title was Munich in 2021.

Match tale, 25 October 2026, sources: Almaty Open, api-tennis