Citi Open: Medvedev takes revenge on Opelka

Russian Daniil Medvedev, the No 8 seed, advanced to the last 16 of the Citi Open by defeating American Reilly Opelka 3-6, 7-5, 6-1 at the William H.G. FitzGerald Tennis Center in Washington on Wednesday evening.

Beaten by the American in the quarter-finals of the Libéma Open last June, Daniil Medvedev got his revenge this Wednesday in Washington. The Russian gave himself a real scare, losing the first set and conceding a break point at 3-6, 3-3.

But the world’s 14th-ranked player finally managed to stave off the danger before finding the opening on his opponent’s serve to clinch a third set. Efficient on his return of serve from a very remote position on the court, the Russian quickly killed off the suspense to cruise to victory.

“It’s tough to play against Reilly, you need to have a good feel on his serve,” said Medvedev. “You have to guess a little bit, but you don’t want to overguess it, like I did in ‘s-Hertogenbosch. He got in my head and made 24 aces… Today was better and I managed to get more looks on his serve.”

Medvedev, ranked No 14, will play Chinese qualifier Yibing Wu next.

Opelka, ranked No 74, won against qualifier Murphy Cassone (7-6 (4), 6-7 (5), 6-3) in the previous round of the Washington D.C. tournament.

Washington ATP 500, other second-round results (William H.G. FitzGerald Tennis Center, hard, USD 2.396.115, most recent results first):

• Aleksandar Kovacevic vs. Frances Tiafoe

• Flavio Cobolli vs. Yoshihito Nishioka
• Learner Tien vs. Andrey Rublev
• Alejandro Davidovich Fokina vs. Jaume Munar
• Taylor Fritz vs. Aleksandar Vukic
• Alex De Minaur vs. Yunchaokete Bu: wednesday
• Matteo Arnaldi vs. Lorenzo Sonego: wednesday
• Jiri Lehecka (11) beat Zachary Svajda (Q): 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-3
• Yibing Wu beat Alexei Popyrin (10): 7-5, 5-7, 6-3
• Corentin Moutet (LL) beat Alexandre Muller: 6-0, 6-1
• Daniel Evans (WC) beat Alex Michelsen (13): 6-4, 6-4
• Ben Shelton (4) beat Mackenzie McDonald (WC): 6-3, 6-4
• Gabriel Diallo (15) beat Fabian Marozsan: 6-3, 6-4
• Cameron Norrie beat Lorenzo Musetti (2): 3-6, 6-2, 6-3
• Brandon Nakashima (14) beat Ethan Quinn (WC): 6-3, 6-4