Bird poop briefly stopped play as Daniil Medvedev bludgeoned Stefanos Tsitsipas on his way to the Australian Open final

• Daniil Medvedev cruised into the Australian Open final by beating Stefanos Tsitsipas.
• The Russian dominated his Greek opponent Friday, setting up a Sunday final with Novak Djokovic.
• The match was briefly paused when a bird pooped on the court and it had to be cleaned up.

Daniil Medvedev beat Stefanos Tsitsipas in a comfortable straight sets victory to advance to the men's final of the 2021 Australian Open.

Russian Medvedev took the honors on a day where Tsitsipas was far from his best, beating the Greek 6-2, 6-4, 7-5 at the Rod Laver Arena in a match that lasted just over two hours.

Coming into the match, Tsitsipas was in scintillating form having knocked out world No.2 Rafael Nadal in the quarter finals.

On Friday, however, Medvedev was dominant, rarely being troubled by the Greek besides a break of serve towards the end of the third set.

Medvedev now advances to his second Grand Slam final, following a 2019 appearance in the US Open final, in which he lost in five sets to Nadal.

He plays Serbian world number one Novak Djokovic on Sunday, and if he wins, will become the first Russian to win a Grand Slam since Marat Safin won the Australian Open in 2005.

After the match, Medvedev said on court that managing to keep his nerves at bay was key to victory, but also noted that Tsitsipas was likely tired after his five-set, four-hour epic Wednesday against Nadal.

"I just tried to hit aces and winners, get the ball in the court, that's the only way to do it. I am happy to keep my nerves, I didn't make too many bad choices apart from the game I got broken," Medvedev said.

"I think sure he was tired after the match with Rafa, during today's match I saw as soon as I was moving him around the court it was easy so that became my strategy straight away."

"Sunday I am going to come up against one of the greatest," he added.

Medvedev's win Friday was his 20th consecutive victory on tour, a run stretching back to October 2020 that has seen him win three tournaments, including last season's ATP Tour finals.

Bird poop stops play

The match was largely without incident, with Medvedev completely bludgeoning Tsitsipas for most of their encounter.

At the beginning of the third set, however, Medvedev briefly paused play to allow staff at the Rod Laver Arena to clean up some bird poop on the court.

Bird droppings have long been a problem at the Australian Open thanks to its open stadiums and Melbourne's location on Australia's southern coast.

In 2019, for instance, a match between Garbiñe Muguruza and Johanna Konta was delayed over three hours as officials had to clear a court of an excess of seagull poop.

Wildlife in general has been a theme at this year's tournament, with butterflies causing particular excitement.

Two of the four singles finalists - Naomi Osaka and Novak Djokovic - experienced visits from butterflies during matches this year, leading some fans to speculate that the insects were good luck charms.