Montreal Masters: Medvedev falls to Davidovich Fokina in opening match

No 3 seed Danill Medvedev crashed out of the Montreal Masters in his opening match with a 6-4, 1-6, 6-2 loss to Alejandro Davidovich Fokina on Thursday afternoon. The loss represents Medvedev’s earliest loss at the three hard court Masters 1000 that have taken place so far in 2024, having made the semi-finals of Indian Wells and the third round of Miami. 

The Russian looked to be back in control after winning the second set in a straightforward manner, but his lack of effectiveness on second serve proved fatal.

Davidovich Fokina, ranked No 42, will play Italian Matteo Arnaldi next. The Spaniard won against Russian Roman Safiullin (6-2, 7-5) on Wednesday.

I believe the tournament should put toilets next to Center Court. It would be easier. I don’t think it’s very expensive.

Daniil Medvedev

Speaking to the press later, Medvedev admitted that he was troubled by a rule about toilet breaks, which affected his game in the third set.

“What affected me is the rule. The rest is not too bad. It’s not a problem. Here the problem was that it takes two minutes to go there and two minutes to come back, which is four minutes just walking. So I was stupid, and I had to go out. I didn’t react quickly enough, so I decided to stay on the court. In fact, this cost me some energy in the end,” the Russian said.

“It was a problem because I couldn’t go out. I had to go out after the second set because I had forgotten that walking to the toilets is a very long walk here. It’s more than two minutes, and it’s far from Center Court. I had to go out because I had waited too long being inactive, so I thought that I could do it during the set, but the rule is not clear to me. Sometimes they let me go during the set. I know normally you have to do that within one hour and a half of the changeover. Sometimes I do it too fast, and I try to walk fast, and the umpire says, Take your time. Today I was told, No, you can’t go. So, in fact, in the end I don’t understand the rule, but I believe the tournament should put toilets next to Center Court. It would be easier. I don’t think it’s very expensive.”

Montreal Masters 1000, other second-round matches (Stade IGA, hard, USD 6.795.555, most recent results first):

• Kei Nishikori beat Stefanos Tsitsipas (8): 6-4, 6-4
• Sebastian Korda vs. Taylor Fritz
• Thanasi Kokkinakis vs. Hubert Hurkacz
• Flavio Cobolli vs. Arthur Rinderknech
• Alexei Popyrin vs. Ben Shelton
• Holger Rune vs. Pablo Carreno Busta
• Casper Ruud vs. James Duckworth
• Lorenzo Sonego vs. Alejandro Tabilo
• Jannik Sinner vs. Borna Coric
• Grigor Dimitrov vs. Rinky Hijikata
• Matteo Arnaldi vs. Karen Khachanov
• Jordan Thompson vs. Alexander Zverev
• Tomas Martin Etcheverry vs. Andrey Rublev
• Ugo Humbert vs. Nuno Borges
• Tommy Paul vs. Brandon Nakashima

You might also like this

“Probably in my career, Alcaraz is the toughest opponent I have faced” – Medvedev

tennis majors

“They were telling him: you can’t beat Alcaraz, you can’t do this, but he’s beating them” – Bublik and Kyrgios on Medvedev’s determination

tennis majors

“Sometimes I don’t recognise him anymore” – Bublik talks about Medvedev’s incredible transformation from younger days to elite talent

tennis majors