Medvedev Rallies Past Basilashvili in Almaty for His 25th Career Title

Top seed and defending champion Daniil Medvedev dropped the first set in a tiebreaker, then beat Nikoloz Basilashvili 6–7 (6), 6–1, 6–3 on Sunday in Almaty, hitting 22 aces to win the 25th tour-level title of his career and his fourth of 2026.

By Davies Daily Staff Reports · Sunday, October 25, 2026

ALMATY, Kazakhstan — Top seed and defending champion Daniil Medvedev of Russia rallied past Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili 6–7 (6), 6–1, 6–3 on Sunday to claim the title at the Almaty Open. The win was the 25th tour-level title of Medvedev’s career and his fourth of 2026.

Medvedev, the world No. 5, had to gut out a three-setter after failing to polish off a set-point opportunity in the first-set tiebreaker. Basilashvili took the tiebreaker to close out the opening set, the only set Medvedev dropped in the final, and the match turned from there: Medvedev lost only one game in the second set and closed out the third 6–3 to complete the comeback in the final at Center Court.

The serve decided the match. Medvedev smashed 22 aces to Basilashvili’s three, won 14 service games to the Georgian’s 10, and never lost his serve. He converted four of the 10 break points he created, while Basilashvili was unable to break Medvedev’s serve on either of his two tries. Basilashvili saved six of the 10 break points he faced, but the pressure told across the last two sets.

The error count told the same story. Basilashvili committed twice as many unforced errors as Medvedev — 40 to 20 — and Medvedev finished ahead in total points as well, 96 to 77. After the first set, Basilashvili won only four more games: one in the second set and three in the third.

Medvedev was defending the title he won in Almaty a year ago, and the successful defense brought up a career milestone: 25 tour-level titles, with four of them coming in 2026 alone. He remains the world No. 5.

For Basilashvili, the final was a chance at a sixth career title and his first since May 2021. The Georgian reached the championship match and pushed the top seed to a deciding set, taking the first-set tiebreaker after Medvedev had held a set point in it, but he could not break serve once in the match and his 40 unforced errors left him chasing the final from the start of the second set onward.

The Almaty Open, played in Kazakhstan from Oct. 19 to Oct. 25, closed with its top seed holding the trophy for the second straight year.

Sunday’s Other Finals

Almaty was one of three ATP finals decided on Sunday, and the other two are already recorded on the Daily’s tennis board. In Lyon, France, No. 6 seed Lorenzo Musetti of Italy took down No. 2 seed Taylor Fritz 6–3, 6–4. Musetti captured his first ATP title in four years and his third overall, playing a far cleaner match than his counterpart: he never faced a break point and finished with 11 unforced errors to Fritz’s 28. Fritz was aiming for his 12th career ATP crown. Musetti’s title came a day after he saved four match points against countryman and No. 1 seed Flavio Cobolli in the semifinals. In Brussels, at the BNP Paribas Fortis European Open, Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor rallied from a dropped first set to defeat German Jan-Lennard Struff 4–6, 6–3, 6–4. After going down a break in the first set, Griekspoor broke Struff’s serve in the eighth game of the second set and served out for the set, then broke again in the ninth game of the final set and served out for the championship.

Sources: Reuters (Field Level Media) and Sportradar, October 25, 2026.