Tennis at Tokyo Olympics: Daniil Medvedev beats Alexander Bublik to reach the second round

Tennis at Tokyo Olympics: Daniil Medvedev beats Alexander Bublik to reach the second round

Daniil Medvedev

World No.2, Daniil Medvedev starts his Tokyo Olympics campaign in style, beating a tricky opponent in Alexander Bublik in straight sets 6-4,7-6(8) on centre court. Medvedev is one of the favorites to go deep at the Olympics given the nature of the surface and his recent form, and the Russian didn’t disappoint.

He eliminated Bublik unorthodox gameplay by hitting deep from the baseline towards the corners, just like he did at the French Open. He successfully held serve in the opening set and capitalized the break he got to take the opener comfortably 6-4.

Medvedev had momentum going into the second set but Bublik wasn’t done yet. The Kazakh bought the element of uncertainty in his game and caught Medvedev napping at times. He was disciplined on serve and hence formed a tiebreaker. The tiebreaker was as intense as the set with both players pushing each other on serve, Eventually, the Russian second seed got the decisive mini break at 8-8 and closed out the set.

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In the second round, Medvedev will now face India’s Sumit Nagal. He is portrayed as the biggest challenger to stop Novak Djokovic’s quest to a golden slam here at Tokyo.

Also read: Tennis at Tokyo Olympics: Iga Swiatek eases into the second round