Rain Dance Medvedev To Face Rune For Italian Open Title

Daniil Medvedev moved into only the second clay court final of his career on Saturday as he beat Stefanos Tsitsipas 7-5, 7-5 at the Italian Open. The former world number one will play for the title on Sunday at the Foro Italico against Holger Rune, who came from a set and a break down to put out Casper Ruud 6-7 (2/7), 6-4, 6-2. Medvedev and Tsitsipas suffered through several rain interruptions totalling four and a half hours as the atrocious weather of this week continues.

Medvedev advanced to his third Masters final of the season after Indian Wells and Miami.

The pair were forced off at 4-4 in the first set and came back to play one game before being sent to the locker room again.

They finally resumed just after 9:30 p.m.

Upon sealing victory, Medvedev performed a small victory dance on the clay, which he hopes might go viral.

"I'm happy to be in my first clay Masters final and I'm looking forward to tomorrow," he said.

"I enjoyed playing very much. It would have been easy to get angry about the conditions and the delays, but we (his team) just laughed about it."

He added: "I must have warmed up six or seven times, I knew we would play when we could."

Medvedev won nine of the last 10 games to claim the opening set and went up a break in the second before crowd favourite Tsitsipas broke back for 3-3.

The deadlock continued until Medvedev got the break for 6-5 exactly six hours after the first ball of the match was struck. The third seed closed out victory on the first of two match points.

The appalling conditions in Rome placed a question mark over the evening's scheduled women's final between Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina and Anhelina Kalinina.

Medvedev had never won a match in Rome prior to this edition but will