Madrid (Spain), May 1 (IANS) Daniil Medvedev fought back from a set down to qualify for the last-16 stage of the Madrid Open for the first time in his career in the Monday morning session.
The 27-year-old, who is the second seed in the tournament, lost the opening set 6-4 to Alexander Shevchenko, who is currently ranked 96th in the world, but rallied to take the second set 6-1 and went on to win the third set 7-5 in a match that lasted two hours and 42 minutes.
The win was the 300th in his professional career and books him a fourth-round match against Asian Karatsev, who had a surprise win over 16th seed, Alex de Minaur 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, reports Xinhua.
Jan-Lennard Struff also needed three sets to get past Dusan Lajovic 6-7(2), 6-3, 6-3 to move into the last-16.
In the women’s tournament going on simultaneously, number two seed Aryna Sabalanka defeated Mirra Andreeva, who is ranked 194th in the world and only celebrated her 16th birthday three days ago.
The 31st seed Irena Camella Begu beat Lludmila Samsonova 6-4, 6-4 in a close match and Mayar Sherif of Egypt defeated Elsie Mertens of Belgium 6-4, 0-6, 6-4.
–IANS
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