The 29-year-old fell just short in the Brisbane final in 2019, but ensured there would be no repeat heartbreak on Australia\u2019s east coast, where he secured his 22nd tour-level crown with an impressive display against Nakashima. The victory also preserved a rare distinction in Medvedev\u2019s career, with all 22 of his titles coming at different events.<\/p>\n
The championship match showcased punishing baseline exchanges, with Medvedev forced to dig deep late in the second set. After letting slip two championship points on serve at 5-4, the former World No. 1 quickly regrouped, dominating the tie-break to seal victory after one hour and 34 minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to dedicate this to my family,\u201d Medvedev said during the trophy ceremony. \u201cThey couldn\u2019t make it to Australia, it is a bit too far guys, about 23 hours from where I live and with two young kids it is not easy. I decided to play this tournament and we thought we would be coming all together but we stuck to the decision and my daughter had a birthday when I was here, so I dedicate it to her first birthday. This [trophy] is a bit too heavy for her though.\u201d<\/p>\n
Medvedev\u2019s Brisbane triumph continues an upward trajectory that began in October, when he snapped a two-and-a-half-year title drought in Almaty, working alongside new coaches Thomas Johansson<\/a> and Rohan Goetzke. He carried that momentum into the opening week of the new season, becoming the first top seed to lift the Brisbane trophy since Roger Federer<\/a> in 2015.<\/p>\n Nakashima was chasing his second tour-level trophy, having won on home soil in San Diego in 2022. The former Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF<\/a> champion leaves Brisbane at No. 31 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings.<\/p>\n Nakashima did not drop a set en route to his fourth tour-level final but was unable to outmanoeuvre Medvedev, who now leads the American 3-0 in the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series.<\/p>\n Did You Know? \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Match Report Medvedev wins Brisbane crown for perfect start to 2026 Former World No. 1 overcomes Nakashima in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406206,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-406205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406205\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\u201cATP\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/atp-no-1-club-banner-article.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\nMedvedev is the third active player to win 20 tour-level hard-court trophies, joining Novak Djokovic<\/a> (72) and Jannik Sinner<\/a> (21).<\/p>\n