In a quiet little tournament held in North Carolina, right before the Big Apple's US Open creates Tennis Mania around the East Coast of America, a young russian and and experienced yank will fight it out for only their 2nd or 5th titles respectively.

Winston-Salem is an ATP 250 tournament that has hardly featured the biggest names in tennis this year with most notable players being Britain's Kyle Edmund, Spain's Pablo Carreno Busta, Korea's Hyeon Chung, America's Steve Johnson and Russia's Daniil Medvedev. The latter two are to fight it out in the final tonight and for Johnson this title will be welcomed, but not as much as for the Russian, Johnson has already won Houston and Newport this year so he will be reasonable content with his season thus far.

Big Final for a Young Lad

However for Russia's Daniil Medvedev at the age of 22, this is a big final for him and it means the difference between 2018 being just good year rather than a big break through year. At the beginning of the year but the end of the hard court season, Medvedev won his first ever ATP title when he beat Australia's Alex de Minaur in the final of the Sydney ATP. 

In that tournament he racked up some impressive victories against Italy's Fabio Fognini and Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber having come through the Qualification stages of the draw which represented an extra 2 matches he had to play to win the title compared to all the seeded players.

Needs to Keep the Momentum Going

That was at the end of the last hard court season, before which he had lost in the first or second round of 8 out 10 hard court tournaments including an exit from the US Open and Winston-Salem! 

So Sydney was a much needed victory for Medvedev, not just because it was his first ever ATP title, but it came at just the right time to snap a rotten hard court season. Victory tonight will keep his momentum going on his favourite surface and boost his confidence as a young next generation player.

Tough Opponent, Tough Ask

Anyone including Medvedev himself who thought tonight's job would be as easy as when he faced Alex de Minaur in the Sydney final can think again. Taking nothing away from Alex de Minaur but Steve Johnson is a much tougher opponent to take down and far more experienced. Especially considering he recorded an impressive victory against Spain's Number 11 Ranked Carreno Busta in straight sets.

Johnson's forehand and serve have been working well for him this year and that has seen him win 2 ATP title's on home soil - this would make it an American Ha-trick. 

Medvedev will need to target Johnson's backhand to win this one. If he manages to keep Johnson pegged to his backhand for most of the match he will win easily because Johnson doesn't have a backhand! The yank's biggest reason for a lack of titles thus far in his tennis career at the age of 28, is his over use of the slice off the backhand because he never put enough time into honing a real double hander.

Medvedev has a big serve and forehand but he also has a much more reliable double handed backhand than Johnson so he will be looking to take advantage of this big discrepancy. 

All Eyes on Johnson's Flimsy Backhand

Medvedev is 3-1 against Johnson head to head although Johnson won their last encounter two months ago, but that was on Grass, a surface Johnson prefers far more than Medvedev. Medvedev took the previous match this year on a hard court surface at Indian Wells in straight sets.

Stats alone will tell you Medvedev should win this based on the head to head won but there's always more to match than just the basic stats. Johnson has better mobility around court being a fair bit shorter than Medvedev so this will increase the pressure on the Russian hitting hard and flat to ensure rallies do not persist for too long.

Tough One to Call But I am Going with Medvedev

This means it's going to be a very close match with Johnson slightly favoured by the bookies and rightfully so showing more consistent form this year and more recently winning 2 ATP titles. Still I just feel Medvedev being so young is going through a growing period where he is going to have some set backs before he matures as he has shown this year with up and down results. Tonight I feel it may just be his night against Johnson on his favoured surface.

All photos are courtesy of the ATP World Tour Website.