PARIS • Third seed Daniil Medvedev battled past Milos Raonic yesterday to reach his first final of the season at the Paris Masters, where he will face Rafael Nadal or Alexander Zverev.

The Russian, 24, edged out the big-serving Raonic 6-4, 7-6 (7-4) for his third victory in as many meetings with the Canadian.

Medvedev, who won both the Cincinnati and Shanghai Masters last year, is looking for his eighth career title. All seven of his previous tournament successes have also come on hard courts.

"The first set was great, I think he maybe only won one or two points on my serve," he said. "Second set was tougher, I had to save some break points. Really happy to be through in the final.

"I always take it 50-50. There are two players, only one can win. It's never easy."

Top seed Nadal, bidding for a maiden title at Bercy Arena, took on the in-form Zverev later yesterday. The result was not available at press time.

Medvedev has never beaten Nadal in three matches and has a 5-1 losing record against Zverev.

The world No. 5 took a tight opening set by a single break as both men served strongly, dropping just four points on first serves between them.

The drama came at the end of the second set as, after Raonic missed three break points for a 5-3 lead, he was broken himself in the 11th game.

But Medvedev failed to serve out the match as the Canadian forced a tie-break. The Russian powered into a 4-0 lead in the tie-breaker, only for former Wimbledon runner-up Raonic to peg him back to 5-4, but he secured a final spot on his first match point with a smash into the open court.

Separately, Novak Djokovic has sealed the year-end men's world No. 1 ranking for the sixth time to go level with childhood hero Pete Sampras, after closest rival Nadal opted against playing in this week's ATP Tour event in Sofia.

Nadal, ranked second, was the only player who had a chance of stopping the Serb from finishing as the top-ranked player.

REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE