Medvedev saves two match points to beat Zverev and reach the quarter-finals in Monte-Carlo

Russian Daniil Medvedev, the No 3 seed, saved two match points as he beat German Alexander Zverev, the No 13 seed, 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7) to reach the quarter-finals of the Monte-Carlo Masters on Thursday evening.

Medvedev, ranked No 5, will face Dane Holger Rune, the No 6 seed, next.

Zverev served for the match in the second set but was broken as Medvedev snatched it to force a decider. In the third, the German served for victory again at 5-4 but couldn’t hold, and then, after having match points on his own serve in the tiebreak, Zverev succumbed 9-7 in the deciding tiebreak as Medvedev extended his recent run of wins to 26 in his last 27.

“That was a crazy match,” Medvedev said. “He served two times for the match, he probably should have done better, but that is also clay courts. I tried to watch a lot of tennis before playing this tournament, and one thing that I saw is you can come back at any moment. The serve doesn’t count as much, so as soon as someone gets a little bit tight, the match can turn around in one second. That’s what I managed to do.”

The Russian beat Italian wildcard Lorenzo Sonego (6-3, 6-2) in the previous round of the Monte-Carlo tournament.

In the previous rounds of the Monte-Carlo tournament, Zverev, ranked No 16, edged out Kazakh Alexander Bublik (3-6, 6-2, 6-4) and won against Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut (6-4, 6-4).

Monte-Carlo Masters, other round of 16 results (Monte-Carlo Country Club, clay, EUR 5,779,335, most recent results first):

• Lorenzo Musetti (16) beat Novak Djokovic (1): 4-6, 7-5, 6-4
• Holger Rune (6) beat Matteo Berrettini (walkover)
• Taylor Fritz (8) beat Jiri Lehecka: 4-6, 6-4, 6-1
• Stefanos Tsitsipas (2) beat Nicolas Jarry: 6-3, 6-4
• Andrey Rublev (5) beat Karen Khachanov (9): 7-6 (4), 6-2
• Jannik Sinner (7) beat Hubert Hurkacz (10): 3-6, 7-6 (6), 6-1
• Jan-Lennard Struff (Q) beat Casper Ruud (4): 6-1, 7-6 (6)