Australian Open runner-up Daniil Medvedev kicked off his title defense at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships by beating Alexander Shevchenko 6-3, 7-5 on Tuesday evening. Medvedev came back from 5-3 down in the second set to advance after one hour and 28 minutes.
The third-ranked Russian was playing for the first time since losing the final at Melbourne Park to Jannik Sinner from two sets up. He was also playing for the first time with new assistant coach Gilles Simon in his box.
“When you take a week or two off but it’s something you planned, then it’s kind of easy tennis-wise–just a couple of points or games–to get back,” Medvedev explained. “I did take a week and a half off by myself and then when I came back I started feeling pain here and there, not practicing 100 percent.
“It’s very tricky, because when you come into a match you have to forget about it and when you think about something other than tennis you are going to lose the match. I managed to do it. I didn’t feel any pain and I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”
Medvedev is joined in the second round by Jakub Mensik, who built on his runner-up performance this past weekend in Doha with a 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(7) victory over Borna Coric.
Mensik failed to serve out the match at 5-4 in the third set despite having a match point and then held from 0-30 down at 5-6 to force a tiebreaker. The 18-year-old Czech led 4-0 in the ‘breaker and had another match point on his own serve before finally capitalizing on his third chance. Mensik also saved a match point on Coric’s serve at 6-5 in the ‘breaker.
Next up for the world No. 87 is Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, who defeated Fabian Marozsan 6-3, 4-6, 6-1.
Mensik match was wild