Paris, France) – With a perfect performance in his debuts this season, winning the six he has played so far, Russian Daniil Medvedev narrowly missed out on saying goodbye to the Masters 1000 in Madrid in his first match, needing to look for a comeback this Saturday to defeat Italian Matteo Arnaldi with partials of 2/6, 6/4 and 6/4.
“In the first set I made a lot of mistakes and still had my chances. So I’m happy that in the second I managed to stabilize my level a little more, serve better, make fewer mistakes and earn some good points. And then the third set was perfect for me, I think. Happy with my level and looking forward to what lies ahead”, analyzed the Russian.
Having acclimated to Madrid’s high altitude over the course of his two-hour victory over Arnaldi, the tournament’s 3 seed will be hoping to take advantage of the Spanish capital’s unique clay conditions as the event progresses.
“It’s very difficult because it’s not easy to control the ball, which is not normal on clay. If you land a good hit you can put your opponent in trouble. So sometimes it’s this balance where you don’t go too far, otherwise you’ll lose everything, and at the same time you don’t want to give him an easy pass. You need to adapt,” Medvedev noted.
With two more victories, the Russian will complete the quarterfinals at the Masters 1000, reaching this stage in all nine tournaments in the series. His next challenge at Caixa Mágica will be against the North American Sebastian Korda, 25th favorite in the competition. It will be the fifth time that they face each other, in a very even confrontation, with two victories for each side.
Tags: Medvedev seeks adaptation Madrid conditions
