2023 champion Medvedev stops Wawrinka in Rotterdam
Daniil Medvedev beat Stan Wawrinka 6-7 (8), 6-4, 6-1 on Monday evening. He’ll play the winner of the match between Italian qualifier Mattia Bellucci and Dutch wildcard Mees Rottgering in the next round
© Chryslène Caillaud / Panoramic
Russian Daniil Medvedev, the second seed, beat Swiss wildcard Stan Wawrinka 6-7 (8), 6-4, 6-1 to reach the second round of the Rotterdam Open at the Rotterdam Ahoy on Monday evening. In a battle of former champions at the ATP 500 event (Medvedev 2023; Wawrinka 2015), it was the more recent trophy winner who prevailed with a strong comeback effort.
Medvedev squandered a 5-3 lead in the opening set and had a set point in a wild tiebreak, but it was the Swiss legend who converted his fourth set point to take the opener 7-6(8).
The set also featured a time violation warning for Medvedev when he was serving at 5-5, 40-0. The former world No 1 didn’t appreciate the call as he claimed to be waiting for ball kids to settle before serving.
“Do you see? Open your eyes. No, you don’t have eyes, man. You’re so bad,” Medvedev told umpire Adel Nour.
“When you have confidence, you win some sets which you should lose, when you don’t have the confidence you lose some sets that you could win,” Medvedev said on court after the win.
Medvedev, who lost in the second round at the Australian Open to 19-year-old Learner Tien, was not broken in set two or three.
The tone shifted from the second set as Wawrinka was broken in four of nine service games across sets two and three. The Swiss had three break points to level the second set at 2-all, but couldn’t take them. He didn’t have any chances against Medvedev after that.
Medvedev, ranked No 7, will play the winner of the match between Italian qualifier Mattia Bellucci and Dutch wildcard Mees Rottgering next.
Rotterdam ATP 500, other first-round results (Rotterdam Ahoy, hard, EUR 2.563.150, most recent results first):
- Matteo Berrettini vs. Tallon Griekspoor
- Aleksandar Kovacevic vs. Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard
- Arthur Fils vs. Constant Lestienne
- Jan-Lennard Struff vs. Fabian Marozsan
- Andrea Vavassori vs. Felix Auger-Aliassime
- Lorenzo Sonego vs. Holger Rune
- Carlos Alcaraz vs. Botic van de Zandschulp
- Pedro Martinez Portero vs. Roberto Bautista Agut
- Andrey Rublev vs. Zhizhen Zhang
- Alexander Bublik vs. Jakub Mensik
- David Goffin vs. Alex De Minaur
- Jiri Lehecka vs. Alexei Popyrin
- Mattia Bellucci vs. Mees Rottgering
- Stefanos Tsitsipas (6) beat Harold Mayot (Q): 6-1, 7-5
- Hubert Hurkacz (8) beat Flavio Cobolli: 6-3, 6-2
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