Danil Madvedev was limping ahead of the third set, but managed to squeeze out a victory | IMAGO / Giuseppe Maffia
Danil Medvedev started as an outright favourite in the all-important match against his American opponent Learner Tien, but it was more than a hard fought contest. The Russian escaped and progressed to the quarter final of the Shanghai Masters and will take a lot of confidence from the 2 hour, 52 minute grueling encounter.
Lots of drama enfolded in what was arguably the best match of the tournament so far. An injury struck Medvedev pulled an unbelievable coup to win the match 7-6, 6-7, 6-4. The Russian was drained out after the match, but lauded the efforts of his young opponent, who took the game so close.
“The toughest part is that we have played two times and in my opinion he is an unbelievable player, because he doesn’t have a good serve, which is so important in tennis. And without the serve, he is 19 and ranked 30 in the world and only going up,” stated Medvedev, after the match.
“I thought I was going to lose. I was cramping again and I am super happy to have managed to beat him,” he added.
The highlight of the match occurred late in the second set of the match, when cramps almost crippled Medvedev on the court, leaving him limping with the scores tied at 6-6. Tien rushed through the points swiftly, claiming the second set by giving away just one point in the tie-breaker. Medvedev received medical treatment ahead of the third set.
Medvedev’s ploy to serve long and induce drop shots did give him initial success in the deciding set, eventually backfiring as Tien was still fresh to move throughout and court and respond to them. Experience finally paid off, with the veteran holding on to his nerve, cashing on the unforced errors by his counterpart to claim the third set 6-4.
Daniil Medvedev suffered from cramps in the second set while facing Learner Tien| Image Credits: Imago/VCG
Despite the win, Medvedev felt that the match does not help him in the larger scheme of things, having soaked out enormous energy from his body. A silver lining will be the one-day gap to help him with recovery before he faces Australian Alex de Minaur in the quarter-final.
“I don’t think this match helps, I am dead. Luckily I don’t play tomorrow and I have one day to recover and I am probably going to be fine. It’s more the general Asian leg, I was playing good. The two matches I lost, I was serving for the match (at a point). I am happy with where I am going. If I continue like this, I can make a comeback,” remarked Medvedev.
The match initially was a déjà vu of what happened a week back in Beijing, where Medvedev faced an identical situation. He won the first set 7-5 and conceded the second one with a mirror image score. Problems surfaced in the third set when the former World No. 1 was seen struggling to move, yet he continued. Finally, he withdrew from the game, when Tien was leading 4-0 in the deciding set.
Incidentally, Medvedev lost in the quarter-final of the previous edition of the Shanghai Masters, losing to eventual winner and current World No. 2 Jannik Sinner. Among the other stars, Holger Rune and Novak Djokovic will be in action during their respective quarter-final clashes, on Thursday, at the Qizhong Forest Sports City Arena in the Minhang District, Shanghai.
