Author: Barkha Roy
Men’s second seed Daniil Medvedev advanced to the fourth round of the current Madrid Open on Monday after a hard-fought 4-6, 6-1, 7-5 victory over qualifier Alexander Shevchenko.
The 22-year-old started the match in dominant fashion and took a 5-1 lead in the first set. However, Medvedev began to come back into the match with his typical resilience, winning 5-0 in the second set. Medvedev found himself down 0-2 and then 2-4 in the third set after a forced tie-break, but managed to avoid a surprise by remaining more consistent than Shevchenko in the latter part of the match.
The 27-year-old will now face Aslan Karatsev in his fourth round match. The 29-year-old qualifier beat 16th seed Alex de Minaur 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 to advance to the last 16, where he will face his compatriot on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, American Taylor Fritz recorded a straight sets 6-1, 7-6 (4) win over Cristian Garin to advance to the last 16. He has now reached the Round of 16 in all eight ATP events he has played this calendar year, including three on clay. In another surprising match, Argentina’s Pedro Cachin defeated ninth seed Frances Tiafoe in the fourth round, winning 6-1, 7-6(2). He will now face Jan-Lennard Struff, who beat Dusan Lajovic 6-7(2), 6-3, 6-3.
In another upset, China’s Zhang Zhizhen beat Cameron Norrie 2-6, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (2) to advance to the next round, where he will face Taylor Fritz.
In the women’s event, world number one Iga Swiatek advanced to the quarter-finals of the Madrid Open for the first time after beating Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-7 (3), 6-3. She will face 27th seed Petra Martic in the quarter-finals. Martic advanced to the quarter-finals after a surprise victory over 11th seed Barbora Krejcikova 6-3, 7-6 (1).
It was a mixed day for the Brazilians at the tournament, as the Brazil-Germany men’s doubles pair of Marcelo Melo and Alexander Zverev were eliminated in the round of 16 by Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden in a three-set match with 4-6, 6-1, 5-10 scorelines. In the women’s doubles, Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia and Belarus’ Victoria Azarenka received a forfeit from the US-Russian duo of Caty McNally and Anna Kalinskaya in their round of 16 match.