Daniil Medvedev returned 53 consecutive serves from his opponent en route to claiming a milestone victory in the fourth round of the Madrid Open.
The former US Open champion narrowly avoided a surprise defeat by ousting compatriot Alexander Shevchenko 4-6, 6-1, 7-5, after almost three hours of play in the Spanish heat. After dropping the opener to the world No.96, Medvedev then had to come back from a break down twice in the decider. He went on to break his opponent in the penultimate game of the match, who was suffering from cramping, before sealing his 300th Tour win.
“He played well, he’s young, so I’m sure he’s going to go up the rankings, especially if he plays like this tournament. He’s still young so he has a lot of time to go up,” Medvedev said in tribute to Shevchenko.
“I practised with him before, I know that he can play very good. The more consistent he is, kind of like today, but also the more matches like this, maybe next time he’s going to win, the higher he’s going to go. I’m very happy that today I managed to beat him.”
Medvedev joins Alexander Zverev and Dominic Thiem in being the only active players under the age of 30 to have won 300 or more matches on the ATP Tour. He now boasts a winning rate of 50% (10 out of 20) when it comes to playing Masters 1000 tournaments on the clay. Before the start of this year’s Madrid Open, he was one of only two top 10 players to have suffered more losses than wins at these events.
“The thing about clay, usually it’s tough for me to start matches for whatever reason,” he explains. “I need a lot of time to get used to everything that’s happening on the court. And third set could be a little bit better in crucial moments, or maybe a lot better. But finally I won, so that counts also.”
One of the most striking figures about Medvedev’s latest match was the fact he managed to make 53 returns in a row which was something that even surprised him.
“This is unbelievable because I remember last game of the first set, where I started playing better and better, I missed two or three returns and I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s not good’,” he replied when told about the streak. “That makes a difference, that puts a lot of pressure on your opponent and maybe that’s why I had that many opportunities on his serve.”
Medvedev has won four titles so far in 2023 which is more than any other player on the ATP Tour. He has now advanced to the quarter-finals or better in eight out of nine tournaments played this year.
The second seed will next play Aslan Karatsev who defeated Alex de Minaur 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.
