French Open 2021: Daniil Medvedev’s dream run continues, defeats Cristian Garin to make it to the quarterfinals for the first time


French Open 2021: Daniil Medvedev’s dream run continues, defeats Cristian Garin to make it to the quarterfinals for the first time

Daniil Medvedev

Not many people have him a chance when the tournament started, but against all odds, Daniil Medvedev has has made it to the quarterfinals of the 2021 French Open. He defeated in form Cristian Garin in straight sets 6-2,6-1,7-5 on Court Suzanne Lenglen.

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Medvedev hadn’t won a single match at Roland Garros in his previous 5 attempts and his liking of Clay was known to all. He was coming into the tournament with a very poor form on the dirt but the second seed has impressed everyone with his outing in Paris.

He started slow against Garin, struggling to hold serve but once the nerves settled, he broke Garin to take a 4-1 lead. The Russian still struggled with his serve but unforced errors from his opponent aided him. He suddenly rose his level in the later stages of the first set, breaking Garin once again to win the opening set 6-2 in just 37 minutes.

Like the previous round, the French crowd was on Medvedev’s side and he didn’t disappoint them. He broke Garin twice upfront in the second set and in a blink of an eye, stormed to a 5-0 lead. He then served out the set comfortably 6-1 in 38 minutes.

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Medvedev sees off Garin, will face Tsitsipas next

Daniil Medvedev
Daniil Medvedev

The third set saw a much better competition than the previous two. Garin suddenly found his rhythm and caught Medvedev off guard early on. He broke for the first time in the match and took a 3-0 lead. But Medvedev was right on the money, breaking Garin again the next game and drew level at 3-3.

The set was on serve for the next 20 minutes but Medvedev got the decisive break of serve in the 11th game and closed out the set on serve 7-5 in 49 minutes. The second seed will face a tough challenge next up in the quarterfinals from 5th seed Stefanos Tsitsipas.

After the match, Medevdev spoke about facing Tsitsipas and joked that he expects the French crowd to be on his side beacuse he speaks funny French. “I hope the French crowd is on my side. I hope people will say ‘He speaks French, he is funny, we root for him.”

Also read: French Open 2021: Stefanos Tsitsipas blows past Pablo Carreno Busta to make it to the Quarterfinals

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