Have the match-winning floodgates opened for Daniil Medvedev in Rome?

After going 0-3 at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia prior to this year, the World No. 3 on Tuesday notched his third win of this year’s edition of the ATP Masters 1000 by defeating Alexander Zverev 6-2, 7-6(3).

The fourth-round clash was the 15th edition of one of the most intriguing ATP Head2Head clashes on Tour, and Medvedev made it nine wins to Zverev’s six in that matchup with a trademark display of relentless baseline retrieving to counter the big-serving challenge of the 2017 Rome champion.

“He started to play a little bit better for sure,” said Medvedev, when asked about the difficulties he faced in the second set. “We had some long games, and I should have played better on this game at 4-3… I should have done better from 40/0.

“I made a few easy errors, but that’s tennis and I knew that I had to continue. It was not an easy moment, [later I had a] set point to save. I’m happy with my level throughout the whole match, except this game and I’m really looking forward to the next match.”

Zverev had already tasted victory on Tuesday at the Foro Italico, where he earlier wrapped up a rain-delayed third-round triumph against J.J. Wolf. He was unable to pull off a successful double-header Tuesday however, as Medvedev dominated the extended baseline exchanges throughout and converted three of nine break points to register his Tour-leading 36th win of the season.

Despite Zverev reclaiming a break to force a second-set tie-break, Medvedev produced a high-class tie-break to seal a one-hour, 56-minute victory, his third of the season against the German. The 27-year-old’s quarter-final opponent in Rome will be qualifier Yannick Hanfmann, who earlier upset Monte-Carlo champion Andrey Rublev 6-2, 7-6(3).

“I saw a little bit of [Hanfmann’s] match today and I saw his third set against [Marco] Cecchinato. He’s playing well right now,” said Medvedev. “I feel like he was already playing well, in Houston and Madrid [for example], just not going into the final or something like this.

“[Here is his] breakthrough, let’s say, already in the quarter-finals from qualies, playing a great level. So I have to be at my best to try to beat him.”

Source Tennis – ATP World Tour