Daniil Medvedev made a red-hot return to China after 4 years away on Friday, when the World No. 3 eased previous Tommy Paul 6-2, 6-1 in Beijing.
Medvedev delivered a surprising show of clean-hitting on the China Open to seal a Tour-leading thirty ninth hard-court win of the season in simply 81 minutes. The 27-year-old made simply three unforced errors off the bottom in his first-round triumph, a degree of consistency that ensured Paul was saved underneath relentless strain for your complete match.
“It’s not simple for each of us. Each of us a little bit jet lagged. Him possibly extra, coming from Vancouver,” mirrored Medvedev. “Perhaps that made the distinction, but when I believe solely about myself, I’m pleased with my degree.
“I performed nice. The beginning of the match was not simple, nevertheless it’s by no means simple first spherical, particularly in one other a part of the world. Then I used to be enjoying higher and higher throughout the match, so I’m blissful about my degree.”
Paul usually approached the online to attempt to counter Medvedev’s baseline prowess and gained 79 per cent (23/29) of factors transferring ahead, however he was nonetheless unable to realize a foothold within the encounter. Medvedev transformed 5 of 11 break factors he earned to enhance to 2-0 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head collection with the American.
Medvedev is making his debut this yr on the ATP 500 in Beijing, the place he’ll subsequent meet Alex de Minaur. He’s chasing his second title on Chinese language soil and his third in Asia total on the Beijing Olympic Inexperienced Tennis Heart, having triumphed in Tokyo in 2018 and on the Rolex Shanghai Masters in 2019.
