Daniil Medvedev has started his campaign for a maiden Australian Open title with a testing straight sets win over Henri Laaksonen.
The Russian overcame some stern resistance from the world No.91 before prevailing 6-1, 6-4, 7-6(4), on the Rod Laver Cup Arena. Medvedev, who is the highest ranked player in this year’s draw, stayed solid on his serve with the only time he was broken being in the very first game of the match. Overall, he won 79% of his first service points and hit 21 winners against 23 unforced errors to record his 16th career win at Melbourne Park.
“Last year I started well in Australia. I won the ATP Cup and managed to be in the final here (at the Australian Open). This is always a really important tournament for me. I like to play here, I like hardcourt’s and I always want to do better than I did last year but it is not going to be easy,” Maedvedev said during his on-court interview.
Medvedev began his first round encounter in clinical fashion by clinching the opening set in just 27 minutes by winning six games in a row. However, as the match progressed he encountered more difficulty against Laaksonen who has never beaten a top five player in his career.
The second set was fairly even with a single break in Medvedev’s favor giving him enough of a margin to close it out. Then in the third Laaksonen matched his tennis game-by-game with neither player seeing a break point opportunity. Despite the threat, the world No.2 managed to close the match out in a tiebreak. A Laaksonen unforced error granted him his first match point which he managed to convert with the help of a forehand shot that his opponent failed to return back over the net.
“He was playing better, hitting a lot of lines and missing out of nowhere. I didn’t really know what to do, he was controlling the game and hitting full power every shot he had. I was just like ‘ok, I wait.’ I tried to win the set and it managed to work out,” Medvedev commented about the end of his match.
Following the deportation of Novak Djokovic from his country, Medvedev could claim the world No.1 ranking should he win the title in Melbourne. The only other player challenging for the top spot is Germany’s Alexander Zverev who he can only play against in the final. On paper Medvedev is the favourite for the title, but he is taking it all in his stride.
“I always say that whoever is the highest ranked (player) is the favorite but this time I am going to go with Rafa (Nadal), he has 20 Grand Slams,” he joked during an interview with Eurosport.
Medvedev will play either Nick Kyrgios and Liam Broady in the second round on Thursday.
