Masters 1000 Madrid – Quiet like Daniil Medvedev, matches interrupted by rain at midday

Quiet like Daniil

Daniil Medvedev may not particularly like clay, but she has rarely smiled so much at him. Very quiet, the former world number one had no trouble getting rid of the Italian Andrea Vavassori, 164th player in the world wrung out in 1h22 of play (6-4, 6-3). The Russian signs a ninth entry into the running without setbacks this season, and continues to seduce on this ocher which however suits him little.

But a Medvedev at this level does not have much to fear, even on this surface. Largely dominating in the exchange, especially when he settled in the baseline, the world number 3 played his hand against an opponent a little too soft for such opposition. Victorious over Andy Murray in the first round, the best victory of his career, Vavassori wasted too much at the net (23/39) despite his stubbornness. Especially since the Russian was particularly well settled, especially on the second ball (71% of points won), for his second victory – only – in his career in the Spanish capital.

“I just want to play my best tennis, explained Medvedev after his victory. Of course everyone says that here I should enjoy the court more than other tournaments on earth because the serves are faster, the court is faster. Until then I hadn’t played very well in Madrid, but today was a great game. I hope I can produce more like this in the next two weeks.“

Daniil Medvedev will face in the next round a new player from the qualifications, his compatriot Alexander Shevchenko. The 22-year-old has just offered himself two solid clients, JJ Wolf and Jiri Lehecka, in two sets and will be one to watch. Medvedev will at least have the advantage of not being able to fall into the element of surprise. The two players know each other very well thanks to… video games. The two Russians had sympathized before the ATP Cup 2022, for which Shevchenko had been called in following the absences for Covid-19 of Andrey Rublev and Aslan Karatsev.

“With Alexander, we are very good virtual friends because we play a lot of PlayStation together, but it will be the first time that I will meet him in real lifethen amused Medvedev. I only know him virtually but he seems really funny and easy going and we’ve been texting each other a lot over the past few days about me helping him with his visa as he needed to get it in a day or two.“A year and a half later, their opposition will be this time very real.