Mellowing Medvedev building nicely at Melbourne Park
Darren Walton |
His confidence building, Daniil Medvedev hopes to prove more than second-week nuisance value after moving quietly into the Australian Open third round.
By his standards, the three-time Open runner-up arrived at Melbourne Park at a relatively low ranking of No.12 in the world following just one victory at last year’s four grand slams.
But the former world No.1 feels like he is slowly warming to the task of re-emerging as a major title threat after taking out the Brisbane International and now moving into the last 32 in Melbourne with a four-set victory over Quentin Halys.
“It’s the first time in a couple of years I’m in the third round of a grand slam, so I’m feeling good,” Medevedev said after taking out the Frenchman 6-7 (9-11) 6-3 6-4 6-2 on John Cain Arena on Wednesday.
“I will be honest, I played much better in Brisbane.
“I feel like I still can’t get exactly used to the court here. I feel like I’m missing a little bit of power on my shots, but it’s good because while you continue winning, usually during the tournament you find it step by step.
“So today I had a bit more than the first match. Hopefully the next one I can have a bit more, but I’m definitely playing better.”
Runner-up at Melbourne Park to Novak Djokovic in 2021, Rafael Nadal in 2022 and Jannik Sinner in 2024, the former US Open champion is not ready to say he is back to the level needed to contend again this fortnight.
“Tough, tough,” he said.
“But before when I was top four and playing almost semis or final in every big event where I played, I was of course thinking already kind of, ‘OK, I need to like be good in these later stages now’.
“That’s not the case. I need to rebuild my confidence step by step, so I take a match at a time.
“If I manage to win a lot more matches here and I manage to win five more, it’s going to be great.
“But I’m just trying to enjoy to play some good tennis and I’ll try my best.”
Earlier, fellow Russian seed Andrey Rublev also advanced with a dominant four-set win over Portuguese Jaime Faria.
The 15th seed showed his fiery personality on Margaret Court Arena, losing focus in the fourth set after smashing a ball into the net.
But he overcame his emotions to claim a 6-4 6-3 4-6 7-5 victory.
American world No.20 Tommy Paul also advanced to the last 32 with a second consecutive straight-sets victory.
Paul eliminated Argentina’s Thiago Agustin Tirante 6-3 6-4 6-2 to remain on course for another promising run, similar to his charge to the 2023 semi-finals.
AAP
