Medvedev conquers Tsitsipas 10th time after drama over serve clock to reach Shanghai quarters
Daniil Medvedev defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas in straight sets on Wednesday. He’ll face Italian Jannik Sinner, the top seed, next
Zuma / Panoramic
Russian Daniil Medvedev, the No 5 seed, moved into the quarter-finals of the Shanghai Masters by winning against Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, the No 10 seed, 7-6 (3), 6-3 at the Qi Zhong Tennis Center on Wednesday.
Medvedev brought out his best tennis against Tsitsipas, hitting 10 aces, 28 winners, and threatening the latter’s serve 11 times.
The battle opened on a disciplined not as both players failed to break each other’s serve at all to take it into a tiebreaker, which the Russian claimed. In the second set, however, Tsitsipas started by converting a break point on Medvedev’s serve.
But the eventual winner recovered from the break down with two break-point conversions to win the match in an hour, 10 minutes.
In a rivalry that turned bitter right after the first duel at the 2018 Miami Open, Medvedev now holds a head-to-head lead of 10-4.
Even though it was all cordial between Medvedev and Tsitsipas, the Wednesday match had its fair share of drama with the Greek taking on the chair umpire for a time violation on the serve clock in the second set.
Why are you doing this to me man?”
Stefanos Tsitsipas
“I’m the best about this on tour, the most consistent player about this on tour,” the world No 12 argued. “Why are you guys against me so much? The last few months have been terrible. I don’t understand what’s gotten into you. I haven’t seen any of my opponents get a time violation besides myself.”
The Greek lost his serve after the initial argument with the official and further continued to express his discontent over the call. While Medvedev prepared to serve, he refused to receive for the next game, demanding the tournament supervisor’s presence on the court.
Medvedev, ranked No 5, will face Italian Jannik Sinner, the top seed, next.
Ahead of his victory, the Russian defeated Brazilian Thiago Seyboth Wild (7-5, 7-5) and edged out Italian Matteo Arnaldi, the No 29 seed (5-7, 6-4, 6-4).
Tsitsipas, ranked No 12, won against Japanese wildcard Kei Nishikori (7-6 (6), 6-4) and Frenchman Alexandre Muller (6-3, 7-5) earlier in the tournament.
Shanghai Masters 1000, other last 16 results (Qi Zhong Tennis Center, hard, USD 8.995.555, most recent results first):
- David Goffin vs. Alexander Zverev
- Taylor Fritz vs. Holger Rune
- Roman Safiullin vs. Novak Djokovic
- Jakub Mensik vs. Grigor Dimitrov
- Tommy Paul vs. Tomas Machac
- Carlos Alcaraz vs. Gael Monfils
- Jannik Sinner beat Ben Shelton (14): 6-4, 7-6 (1)
