Daniil Medvedev may have captured four ATP Tour titles since the start of last year, but the Russian made a significant breakthrough at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters on Thursday.
The 23-year-old defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-2, 1-6, 6-4 to advance to his first ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final after one hour and 45 minutes. Medvedev extends his unbeaten FedEx ATP Head2Head record against the #NextGenATP Greek to four matches, following three wins in hard-court encounters last year.
“It’s a great achievement,” Medvedev said. “I had only two wins on clay on the ATP Tour before this tournament. Now I have three [this week]… everything is perfect.”
The 6’6″ right-hander earned 80 per cent of points behind his first serve (20/25) to secure his second Top 10 victory (2-11). Medvedev claimed his first win over Top 10 opposition at 2017 Wimbledon, defeating Stan Wawrinka in four sets.
The Sofia Open winner becomes the first player to reach 20 tour-level victories this season (20-6). Medvedev has now reached the quarter-finals or better at four of his eight tournament appearances this year.
“In the third set I just went out there and thought, ‘Okay I need to put every ball I can in the court’,” Medvedev said. “Even being a break down, I finally managed to do it.”
Tsitsipas was bidding to reach his second career ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final. The sixth seed claimed four consecutive Top 10 victories to advance to the Rogers Cup final last year (l. to Nadal).
Medvedev will meet World No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the quarter-finals. The 10th seed pushed Djokovic to four sets in their third FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting (0-3) at the Australian Open in January. Medvedev was one of just two players (also Shapovalov) who took a set from Djokovic at that tournament.
Source: ATP World Tour
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