Daniil Medvedev works his first step in Halle | ATP Tour

Halle

Medvedev works his first step in Halle

The world No. 5 is chasing his first title of the season

June 17, 2024

Daniil Medvedev made his debut in this edition of the Terra Wortmann Open, where he is pursuing his first crown of the year.

Despite facing a set point down at 5-6 in the first set, the third seed in Halle was able to beat Portuguese Nuno Borges 7-6(4), 6-4 in one hour and 31 minutes to advance to the second round in their first tournament of the season on grass.

According to Infosys ATP statistics, the No. 5 in the PIF ATP Rankings only earned five more points than his rival (74-69), but they were enough to make the difference. Additionally, he saved five of the six break point opportunities he conceded.

Borges, who was chasing the first victory of his career against a Top 10 opponent (he is 0-8 now), was able to change the direction of the match in the first set. A double fault from Medvedev gave the Portuguese the chance to close it on his side, but the champion of 20 ATP Tour titles saved the danger.

Medvedev will face the boy Zhizhen Zhang in the second round, who also managed to win his match this Monday against the Austrian Sebastian Ofner 7-6(8), 6-7(3), 6-4 in two hours and 21 minutes .

It will be the first record in the Lexus ATP Head2Head between Medvedev and Zhang, although the history between the two does have a precedent in the previous ATP 250 in Nice eight years ago. Then, Medvedev won the decisive tie-break.

For his part, local guest Dominik Koepfer advanced to the second round against No. 8 seed Felix Auger-Aliassime, who was forced to withdraw due to a left hip injury when the match was 6-4, 4-3 .

Jannik Sinner already knows who his rival could be in the second round, if he is first able to beat the Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor in his debut in Halle. It would be the Hungarian Fabian Marozsan, who was able to knock out Roman Safiullin 7-5, 4-6, 6-1.

Another Italian, in this case Lorenzo Sonego, worked his first victory in this edition on the German grass against the Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic by 7-6(6), 7-6(5), thanks to a great performance on the first serve, with which he dominated 85% of the points he put into play.

He will face the No. 2 seed Alexander Zverev or German qualifier Oscar Otte in the second round.

In addition, Hubert Hurkacz achieved victory No. 200 in his career by beating the Italian Flavio Cobolli 7-5, 7-6(2) and in just 95 minutes of play. The champion of this event in 2022, now with 30 games won this year, will clash in the second round with the Brazilian Joao Fonseca or the Australian James Duckworth.

Did you know…?
Daniil Medvedev, who has been a finalist at the Australian Open and the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells this season, has a 22-1 record against players ranked outside the Top 20 in 2024. No. 31 Jiri Lehecka is the only who was able to beat him in the quarterfinals of the Mutua Madrid Open, although Medvedev retired with 4-6 on the scoreboard.