Top seed Daniil Medvedev admits there are areas of his game he would like to improve after coming through a testing first round encounter at the Western and Southern Open.
The reigning US Open champion ousted Botic van de Zandschulp 6-4, 7-5, in what was a mixed encounter for the Russian. After breaking at the start of the match, Medvedev eased his way to a 6-4 lead in under 40 minutes. However, it was far from straightforward in the second set with the world No.1 failing to maintain a break advantage. Trailing 4-5, he then had to save three set points before fighting back by winning three games in a row to secure victory.
“The second set was not that clean,” Medvedev admitted afterwards. “The first set was great. Everything was working. I had three games where I had break points but managed to break in the first game, which was enough.”
Hitting a total of 17 winners against 17 unforced errors, Medvedev benefitted from some lacklustre play coming from his opponent. World No.24 Zandschulp produced a costly 38 unforced errors and struggled with his serve. Producing a total of 11 double faults and winning just 41% of his second service points.
“He was not serving especially well today, doing a lot of double faults. So I tried to keep pressure, use my chances,” said Medvedev. “Actually on return, I feel like I did a good job. Two breaks on these fast courts is enough to win and I should have done a little bit better on my serve. But the first match is tricky and I’m happy that I managed to go through, and hopefully I will raise my level in the next matches.”
Tuesday’s victory in Cincinnati has put Medvedev back on track after a roller-coaster past couple of weeks. Earlier this month at the Los Cabos Open he won his 14th Tour title before losing his opening match at the Canadian Masters last week to the formidable Nick Kyrgios.
The 26-year-old is facing the possibility of losing his No.1 ranking in Cincinnati should he fail to reach the quarter-final stage. If that were to happen, he would only be dethroned from the top if Rafael Nadal wins the title. Nadal is playing his first tournament since taking time away due to an abdominal injury.
Medvedev will next play either Tommy Paul or Denis Shapovalov.