Madrid (Spain) – Russian Daniil Medvedev’s challenge on clay had a positive chapter this Saturday. Despite a first set full of errors and bad choices, the number 4 in the ranking advanced to the third round of the Masters 1000 in Madrid, by beating the young Italian Matteo Arnaldi, by 2/6, 6/4 and 6/4 .
The search for a place in the round of 16, which would repeat their best campaign, obtained last year, has a much greater challenge. He will face the North American Sebastian Korda, currently 26th in the ranking, who earlier in the day easily beat Australian Max Purcell, by double 6/3.
Medvedev and Korda have already met four times, always on synthetic surfaces and three of them at Masters level. Each won two, with the Russian winning in Paris-21, but then losing last year at the Australian Open and in Shanghai. A few weeks ago, Medvedev prevailed in Indian Wells after three tough sets.
Good numbers from Medvedev
With Saturday’s victory, Medvedev maintains his perfect record in debuts this season, having won all five. With that, he already has 20 wins in 2024, which has been happening for eight consecutive seasons. Madrid is the only Masters level event in which the Russian has not yet reached at least the quarterfinals.
In the match against Arnaldi, the Russian adopted a very defensive stance in the first set and not even the closed ceiling gave him any advantage. On the contrary, he lost two of four service games. It was then crucial to avoid the break-point at the beginning of the second set, which seemed to give him more freedom.
Little by little, he began to dominate rallies. He got a break from zero and then went to 4/2 and didn’t waver until he finished the set. By taking the service from the 36th in the world right at the opening of the decisive series, Medvedev was able to focus on his own serve and attack the returns. He almost took another serve from Arnaldi in the sixth game and gave up just three service points before ending the match.
