Medvedev motors into Miami round of 16 and inches closer to No 1

Miami Open 2022: Men’s Singles Draw | Results | Order of Play

Having taken a few short breaths of the rarefied air of the No 1 ranking – three weeks’ worth to be exact – Daniil Medvedev is hungry and zeroing in on another taste this week in Miami. The 26-year-old is now two victories from regaining the ATP’s top ranking after taking down Spain’s Pedro Martinez, 6-3, 6-4, on Monday to set a round of 16 matchup with American Jenson Brooksby.

Medvedev will return to No 1 by reaching the semifinals in Miami. Brooksby and Medvedev have never played before.

Monday afternoon’s scoreline looks simple but the slow-playing surface in Miami tends to make the winning calculation more complicated for Medvedev. Medvedev thrives on the faster surfaces and generally struggles more as the courts slow down, but he is making the adjustment well this time around at Miami.

“Really slow courts,” the 2021 Miami quarter-finalist said after his win. “So I think all the matches that are here, especially on Stadium, can be long points, long games on the serve. I just felt like I had to be more consistent and the more consistent one today would win, so I managed to do just fewer errors in the important moments, serve a little bit better. It was a small margin but I managed to win and I’m really happy about it.”

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Medvedev cracked 14 aces and dropped just 14 points on serve throughout the 84-minute contest, but he did surrender a break in the second set against the 47th-ranked Spaniard. The conditions made it tough, Medvedev would later say.

“When I went up a break the first time we had old balls and it was the last game where the sun was straight in your eyes, I didn’t manage to close it out – it was a really tough one,” he said. “Then actually a few games later when I was up a break, there was no sun and I had new balls. I managed to play a little bit more free and that helped me a lot.” 

Medvedev finished with some sparkling stats. He hit 30 winners – 8 forehand and 8 backhand – against just 15 unforced errors as he improved to 15-4 on the season.

• ATP seeds who won on Monday: No 1 Daniil Medvedev
• ATP seeds who lost on Monday: No 15 Roberto Bautista Agut

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