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1) Medvedev’s No. 1 Status: Medvedev arrives in Cincinnati aiming to secure his World No. 1 status after a disappointing second-round exit against Nick Kyrgios in Montreal left the door ajar for Nadal. The 26-year-old will guarantee his place at the top of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings if he secures two wins at the Masters 1000 event where he triumphed in 2019.
Top seed Medvedev, who also reached the semi-finals in Ohio last season, captured his only title of the year on the hard courts in Los Cabos earlier this month.
Medvedev's Cincinnati Breakthrough: From 4:30 a.m. Arrival To Champion
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World No. 1 reflects on first ATP Masters 1000 title
Daniil Medvedev will forever remember the Western & Southern Open, but not just for the reason you would expect.
Medvedev claimed his first ATP Masters 1000 title three years ago in Cincinnati, which will forever remain a special moment for him. But a lot happened behind the scenes that fans did not know at the time.
On Sunday, the 26-year-old revealed that it was unlikely he would make it through one match at the Lindner Family Tennis Center that year. The week before, Medvedev advanced to his first Masters 1000 final in Montreal. He was invited on a charter flight to Cincinnati, but that is where things went awry.
“The plane was delayed, maybe there was a thunderstorm or something,” Medvedev said. “I remember coming to my room and I was the No. 9 seed, so I was just one out from [getting] a bye and playing Wednesday, so I had to play Tuesday. I came [to] my room at like 4:30 in the morning [on Monday].”
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Since Medvedev was the ninth seed, he did not receive a bye in Ohio. Therefore, not only did he need to recover from a 4:30 a.m. hotel arrival on Monday to get used to the new conditions — he needed to be ready to play Tuesday.
“I was completely destroyed. I also played the Washington final. I was destroyed and I was like, ‘Okay, I’m going to try to play’, but I didn’t have [many] expectations,” Medvedev said. “Every match was the same, something was hurting, I was really tired, I was like, ‘Just go through this and let’s see how it goes’.”
The right-hander made it through his first-round match against Kyle Edmund 6-2, 7-5 and never looked back. The only set he dropped was in the semi-finals against Novak Djokovic, who the year before had completed the Career Golden Masters in Cincinnati.
“I have pretty amazing memories, especially playing my best matches, starting from the quarters and of course the match against Novak, where he was one set to love up. Amazing,” Medvedev said. “That’s why I always love coming here. The tournament didn’t really change from three years ago. I love this atmosphere, because I was always playing good here, especially starting from four years ago. I hope to do the same this year.”
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Medvedev arrives following an opening-round loss in Montreal to Nick Kyrgios. However, the recent Los Cabos champion is not stressing that defeat too much.
“Talking about the match with Nick, I played good. I lost the match, so the result was, let’s put it this way, terrible losing first round, if we don’t talk about who I lost and which match,” Medvedev said. “But because of… the last years and the way I’m feeling right now, I’m feeling confident for Cincinnati and [the] US Open itself.
The top seed, who is now a four-time Masters 1000 champion, will try to find the magic again in Cincinnati, beginning with his opening match against Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp.
“For sure want to try to win as many matches as possible here to grow this confidence of winning matches for the US Open. But we’ll take it match by match. As we see in the draw, I feel that the draw is very, very packed,” Medvedev said. “Sometimes you have somebody retiring here and there, somebody tired from the season, maybe not in the best shape here. When I look at the draw I’m like wow, every match we have, even in the first round, is a tough match.”
Top seed can cement status as World No. 1 through US Open with one more win
Daniil Medvedev rued facing the unseeded Nick Kyrgios so early in Montreal after defeat in his opening match last week. The World No. 1 faced another tough test against Botic van de Zandschulp on Tuesday night as he began his Western & Southern Open campaign.
Playing against the only man to take a set off him in his 2021 US Open title run, Medvedev made a fast start behind an instant break but had to survive a strange second set to secure a 6-4, 7-5 victory and advance to the third round in Cincinnati.
"The second set was not that clean," said Medvedev, who surrendered a break advantage and saved a set point on serve in the set. "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."
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Solid if unspectacular, Medvedev built a lead of a set and a break but immediately surrendered his advantage as van de Zandschulp levelled at 3-3 in the second. After the Dutchman saved three break points to hold for 5-4, it was Medvedev's turn to save a break point, which doubled as set point. The top seed survived thanks to an error from his opponent, then broke for the third time in the match as van de Zandschulp double-faulted three times on serve at 5-all.
"The second set was going not that bad," Medvedev said. "He was not serving especially well today, doing a lot of double faults. So I tried to keep pressure, use my chances. 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 though, and hopefully I will raise my level in the next matches."
Serving woes plagues van de Zandschulp all night, as he finished with 11 double faults, including two on break points. But he made one last charge on return, creating his third break point of the match as Medvedev served it out.
"It happens to me some tournaments," Medvedev said of his opponent's serving struggles. "You don't know why, you just cannot put a second serve in and actually I did a few also here today. So maybe there was something with the balls getting a little bit heavy with the humidity."
Medvedev, who served four double faults himself with a first-serve percentage of 58, did just enough damage in his final service game to close out the match on his third match point. When the 2019 Cincinnati champion did make his first serve, he dominated with an 87 per cent win rate.
He will next face Montreal quarter-finalist Tommy Paul or Denis Shapovalov, with a potential rematch with Kyrgios looming in the quarter-finals. With one more victory, Medvedev will secure his place atop the Pepperstone ATP Rankings through his US Open title defence.