Second seed Daniil Medvedev overcame a tricky first-round test as he opened his Wimbledon account with a 6-4, 6-1, 4-6, 7-6(3) victory over Jan-Lennard Struff on Tuesday.
The Russian, No. 2 in the FedEx ATP Rankings, arrived at the All England Club after a confidence-boosting run to the Mallorca Championships trophy, his 11th tour-level title and his first on grass courts. He has a chance to rise to World No. 1 for the first time after Wimbledon if he wins his second grass-court title here – his first Grand Slam crown – or if he reaches the final and Novak Djokovic does not.
Medvedev continued his momentum even as the German, who knocked him out of the NOVENTI OPEN in Halle in the first round, took the third set. The second seed bounced back in the fourth set to claim his revenge and improve to 4-1 in his ATP Head2Head over Struff.
“When I saw the draw the week before in Mallorca, I was like, 'Okay that’s not going to be an easy match,'” Medvedev said in an on-court interview. “But that’s what tennis is about, rematches and revenges.”
Medvedev, who has reached the third round here in 2018 and 2019, will next face the winner of #NextGenATP Carlos Alcaraz and lucky loser Yasutaka Uchiyama as he seeks to equal his best Wimbledon result. Alcaraz and Uchiyama’s match was cancelled due to rain.
The second seed took an early lead against Struff in the first set. Medvedev broke the big-serving German in his first service game as his rock-solid defending and low-bouncing groundstrokes forced errors off Struff’s racquet. Medvedev saved the two break points he faced in the first set to maintain his lead.
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Medvedev reeled off the first four games of the second set to lead 4-0, and closed out the set comfortably with his fourth break of the match. Medvedev won 100 per-cent (16/16) of his first serve points in the first set and 78 per cent (7/9) in the second set as he raced ahead to a two-sets-to-love lead.
But a sloppy service game in the third set had Medvedev on the ropes, as Struff took advantage of a few looks at second serves to earn a break to love and lead 4-3. Struff, who came to net 72 times in the match (winning 63 per cent of those points) as he employed the serve-and-volley, did well to close out the set and fight off three break points in the fourth set as he worked his way back into the match. Just two mini-breaks made the difference in the tie-break, and both went Medvedev’s way as he sealed the victory after two hours and 35 minutes.
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