Not one, not two, but three hundred wins for Daniil Medvedev on the ATP Tour after he defeated fellow compatriot Alexander Shevchenko at the 2023 Madrid Open.
In the second round of the 2023 Madrid Open, the second-seeded Medvedev recorded only his second-ever win in the Spanish capital. The Russian was never particularly successful on the clay courts, and if someone told him that his 300th win will come on the red dirt, he would probably laugh.
But that became reality on Monday afternoon as he clashed with fellow Russian Alexander Shevchenko, who battled his way through the qualifying in Madrid and played two incredible matches to set up a third-round meeting with Medvedev.
The two know each other really well as they revealed earlier this year, but not from the tennis courts, but from playing video games, where they got to know each other. And it was the lack of familiarity from his higher-ranked opponent that Shevchenko tried to use to his advantage early on.
He got the first two breaks in the opening set and the world no. 96 could finish it off already in the seventh game with two break points, which were also set points, to his name. But Medvedev put together an impressive string, winning 10 of the following 12 rallies and that helped him to decrease the deficit to 4-5.
But Shevchenko didn't miss in his last service game and took the set, winning it 6-4. But the younger of the two couldn't follow up on a good start from the first set also in the second set.
Medvedev broke twice, and this time he was the one leading by a class. The former world no. 1 served for the set at 5-1 and even though Shevchenko took him to deuce, he controlled it and won the second set 6-1 to take the match into a decider.
In the third set, Shevchenko had multiple chances to stage an incredible upset. He was up 4-2, and 30-15, and also 4-3, and 40-0. But none of those games ended victoriously for the 22-year-old as his more experienced opponent played his best when needed.
Medvedev then added one more break and after two hours and 42 minutes, he won the match 4-6, 6-1, 7-5 to advance to the fourth round of the 2023 Madrid Open.
Also. it's his 300th win on the ATP Tour and he became only 3rd player currently younger than 30 to record 300 wins after Dominic Thiem and Alexander Zverev.
Up next, the Russian may meet another compatriot, this time Aslan Karatsev, or the 16th-seeded Alex de Minaur from Australia.
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