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Top seed downs Basilashvili in opening round
The potential matchup many had circled in the Erste Bank Open draw is now a reality. With his opening win on Wednesday, Daniil Medvedev set up a Thursday showdown with home favourite Dominic Thiem in Vienna.

The top-seeded Medvedev eased into the second round with a 6-2, 6-2 win against Nikoloz Basilashvili, breaking early and late in both sets. The 26-year-old improved to 30-10 on hard courts this season as he seeks his second title of 2022 (Los Cabos).

Making his second appearance in the Austrian capital, Medvedev will seek to match his 2020 quarter-final run with a victory against Thiem. The Austrian saved two match points against Tommy Paul on Tuesday to advance to the second round on home soil.

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Thiem holds a 3-2 edge in his ATP Head2Head against Medvedev, though Medvedev won their most recent meeting by coming from a set down in the 2020 Nitto ATP Finals title match. Before that, Thiem won their 2020 US Open semi-final in straight sets on the way to his first Grand Slam title.

Top seed sets quarter-final clash against Sinner or Cerundolo
Daniil Medvedev had to bide his time against Dominic Thiem on Thursday at the Erste Bank Open, but the top seed’s persistence paid off as he registered a 6-3, 6-3 second-round win in Vienna.

Both players came out firing in a hard-fought opening set at the indoor ATP 500 event. Thiem delighted the vocal home crowd with some clean hitting off both wings from the baseline, while Medvedev countered with some trademark defiant defence. After clinching the first break of the match for 4-3, however, the top seed’s combination of consistent, powerful hitting came to the fore as he accelerated away to a 98-minute victory.

“It was a tough match,” said Medvedev after his win. “[Around] one hour, 40 [minutes], and you know when it’s one hour, 40 minutes, even if you win 6-3, 6-3, that it was a tough match. It could have gone either way. At one moment in the match I started to put a lot of pressure on his serve. I was serving good myself, so didn’t [give] him to many opportunities on my serve, and that was the key today I think.”


Medvedev acknowledged the seventh game of the match had been crucial as he moved level with Thiem at 3-3 in the pair’s ATP Head2Head series.

“That was the first game in the match where I actually won the first point on his serve,” said the top seed. “Otherwise, it was 40/0 for him all the time, so a little bit tougher to break. This game I managed to put pressure on him. He had two or three game points where I managed to bring it back to deuce which is really important. When I won this game, I got a little bit of momentum during the match.“

With the win, Medvedev equalled his quarter-final run on his only previous Vienna appearance in 2020. The 26-year-old will play sixth seed Jannik Sinner or Francisco Cerundolo next as he chases his second ATP Tour title of the season.

Medvedev is currently fifth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin, and a deep run in Vienna would bring him closer to claiming one of the three remaining qualification spots for November’s Nitto ATP Finals.