Medvedev wins first match at Roland Garros after surgery
The Russian made it to the second round of the French Open with only six games played.
Daniil Medvedev won his first match at Roland Garros in three sets. It is the first victory for the Russian after the surgery. Our boy is finally back to his former level!
In men’s singles at Roland Garros 2022, there are six Russians starting, instead of the usual four. Daniil Medvedev (No.2 seed), Andrey Rublev (7), Karen Khachanov (21) and Aslan Karatsev were joined by the qualification winners Pavel Kotov and Andrey Kuznetsov. However, three of them (Karatsev, Kotov and Kuznetsov) lost their matches on the very first day. Karen Khachanov defeated a qualifier Nuno Borges of Portugal and got through to the second round where he will play against a Bolivian Hugo Delen.
As a result, only Khachanov is left in the top half of the table, while the bottom half is occupied by Rublev and Medvedev. Their opening matches at Roland Garros were scheduled for Tuesday. It is worth noting that matches were interrupted from time to time on Monday due to rain, and as a result, many evening matches were postponed to the next day. Daniil opened the day’s program on the second most important court of Suzanne Lenglen and entered the arena when the sun in Paris was breaking through thunderclouds. The opponent for the Russian was the 32-year-old Argentine Jacundo Bagnis, whom they had never met before.
Recall that after the Masters in Miami, Daniel decided to undergo surgery for a hernia removal, missed almost the entire mainland season and played his first match just a week ago at the tournament in Geneva, where he lost in two sets to Richard Gasquet of France.
Curiously, it is the Frenchman who Medvedev loses matches most often, and he tried to explain this fact to journalists: “I think there is no system here. It would be better for my career if there wasn’t any system. Honestly, I can lose on the court, I can lose to anyone. But I can be good and win, for example, I beat Djokovic on the clay for the first time. I can lose to anyone, including the French, on the clay. Besides, they are usually good on this surface. So the Russian came into Roland Garros with one defeat and almost no match practice.
Daniil came into the match as focused as possible, even overly determined to win. Maybe this desire overpowered him and he gave up his serve. However, the Russian got better, he gradually adapted to his opponent’s style of play and started to win game after game. It did not matter whether he served home or away. As a result, in 37 minutes Daniel won the game – 6:2 in 37 minutes. The situation was the same in the second set, with the only difference that Medvedev saved all his serves and won faster – 6-2 in 31 minutes. Overall, this match can’t be compared with his performance against Gasquet a week ago in Geneva. The Russian’s serve and rallies were superb at times. In the third set it started to rain and the crowd took out their umbrellas. But this did not help to cool Medvedev’s ardor. He won surely, 6-2, 6-2, 6-2 in 1 hour and 40 minutes!
That is how Daniil Medvedev advanced to the second round of Roland Garros, dropping only six games. In the next round, the Russian will play against Serb Laszlo Jere.
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