Tennis: Medvedev's quick show of mastery: Defending champion given the heat treatment by Ukrainian teenager while German world No 1 doubts American rival will return

AFTER winning the Monte Carlo Open yesterday, Andrei Medvedev tossed his shirt and sweatbands to souvenir-hunting spectators. A couple of the sweatbands fell short, rare faulty shots on an afernoon when almost every ball the 19-year-old Ukrainian struck flashed past Sergi Bruguera as he whipped the defending champion, 7-5, 6-1, 6-3.

Medvedev's timing was so good that he even managed to finish the match before the clouds loitering above the court realised Bruguera was in the final. On the two occasions the Spaniard won the title, last year and in 1991, rain delayed the proceedings until Monday.

Having won an epic three-set quarter-final against Jim Courier on Friday, which required three hours and 19 minutes, Medvedev was in no mood to prolong matters and completed the job in an hour and 39 minutes.

For one thing, he has complained all week - between impressive victories - about soreness in his right knee, which required surgery in January, high temperatures and headaches (he thanked the doctors and trainers yesterday for coaxing him to the court).

For another thing, it would do his ego no harm to punish Bruguera as severely as the Spaniard had dealt with him in the semi-finals of last year's French Open (6-0, 6-4, 6-2) on the way to winning the title; not that Medvedev overplayed the significance of yesterday's victory.

'I can honestly say that Sergi has improved more than me (since the French Open),' he said. 'His ranking is better; he has more titles; he has won more matches; he has more consistency. The fact that I won today doesn't mean anything. I think I played one of my best matches because I didn't feel any pressure. I was going for the shots because that was my only chance to win, and everything went in. Sergi had no chance today.'

None the less, it is remarkable that Medvedev has won a tournament and competed in two finals in the three weeks since returning after a three-month absence. The Monte Carlo Open, moreover, is the most prestigious and lucrative - he won dollars 235,000 (pounds 160,000) - of his seven titles to date.

'When I was a young kid watching tennis on television I saw Borg playing here and Nastase,' he said. 'To come here and win is just a dream coming true.' He paused and added: 'One of the dreams.'

Bruguera, who has lost to Medvedev three times before beating him in Paris, realised the danger of allowing his opponent to build confidence. 'The first set was very close, and if I had won it maybe he wouldn't have played as unbelievably as he did for the next set and a half,' the Spaniard said.

After losing the opening game of the second set, Medvedev irresistibly won the next nine. 'At 4-1 in the third set I was thinking I could actually win one of the 'Super Nine Series' tournaments,' he said. 'While I was thinking, the score became 4-3, so I decided to stop thinking about this.'

Though born and raised in Kiev, Medvedev considers himself the second Russian to win here, the Muscovite, Andrei Chesnokov, becoming the first in 1990. Medvedev sets great store by his Russian descent. 'I am 100 per cent Russian,' he insists.

Medvedev teased a French television interviewer who asked him what Bruguera had said to him at the end of the match. 'He said, 'Thank you, Andrei, you played very well - but you're still a bastard]'

When dry-humoured Chesnokov was the vogue player from the former Soviet Union, a French journalist decribed him as a Marxist with Groucho tendencies. With Medvedev and his talented pal, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, on the go, prepare for the Marx Brothers.

Results, Sporting Digest, page 35

(Photograph omitted)