Tournaments on the clay courts are usually not a success for Daniil Medvedev but he wants to change that at the 2023 Madrid Open.
In the past, the Russian won only one match at La Caja Magica. His win came in 2021 when he defeated Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the second round, ending a streak of two first-round losses in 2018 and 2019.
Last year, Medvedev missed almost a full clay-court season, and so naturally he wasn't present in Madrid. This year, the second-seed Russian aims to overcome his hate for the surface, and he showed that already in Monte Carlo, where he reached quarterfinals.
In the second round of the 2023 Madrid Open, he avoided fellow Grand Slam champion Andy Murray, who lost in the first round to Andrea Vavassori from Italy. The two never met before on the ATP Tour and both surely wanted to start their H2H with a win.
Medvedev, who currently leads the 2023 ATP Race, had a slow start, facing break points already in the first game. But thanks to his good serve, on which he won 75% of the points in the match, he managed to dodge the bullet and keep the score without breaks.
He did the same thing also in the ninth game when Vavassori had a chance to go ahead again. But this time, a missed break point chance of the Italian marked a start of seven-point streak from Medvedev, which secured him the first set, 6-4.
The Russian trusted his shots much more in the second set, and he was perfect on his serve, never allowing his opponent to get anywhere close to break points. Overall, Medvedev hit 24 winners in the match and made only seven unforced errors and with a performance worthy of victory, he won 6-4, 6-3 to book a third-round spot in Madrid.
The Russian will now face fellow compatriot, Alexander Shevchenko, who took care of a dominant win in the second round. In only 45 minutes, Shevchkenko beat the 31st-seeded Jiri Lehecka and set up a clash with another seeded player.
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