ONCE Daniil Medvedev found a way to counter Alexander Zverev’s huge serve, his metronome-like rhythm clicked in and he counterattacked clinically to win the Paris Masters for the first time.

Medvedev’s 5-7, 6-4, 6-1 victory Sunday gave him his eighth career title and third at a Masters event.

“I managed to stay really strong, be there all the time,” the third-seeded Russian said. “Putting pressure on him all the time, raising my level step by step, and finally he broke.”

Medvedev’s style of play is unspectacular — and not “wild” as Zverev put it afterward.

But what he does well is relentlessly chip away with flat, uneeringly accurate strokes, punctuated by sudden accelerations of speed and whipped, fizzing forehands that always seem to land just in. Zverev, like many others before him, soon became exasperated and momentum quickly shifted.

“I’m really trying to make my opponent crazy,” Medvedev said with a wry smile in his post-match interview.

It was just his second win against the fourth-seeded Zverev in seven matches. His previous victory against the imposing German was also in a Masters final last year in Shanghai. “I think it’s not easy for guys to play against me when I play like this,” Medvedev said. “Of course it’s tough to compare with the Shanghai final, where I was on top of him all of the match. Here it was a really tight match where both could be the winners.”

It was Medvedev’s first final and title of the year, while Zverev was playing in his third straight final after winning back-to-back tournaments in Cologne, Germany.

“Lastly,” he said, “A lot of people are trying to wipe a smile off my face … I’m still smiling under this mask.”(SD-Agencies)