Daniil Medvedev’s winning streak on the American tennis tour has come to an end at the Masters 1,000 in Indian Wells. The Russian, US Open champion and first seed for the title in the absence of Novak Djokovic, has been defeated this Wednesday in the round of 16 of the tournament against the Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov in three sets by 4-6, 6-4 and 6-3 after two hours and 14 minutes of the game.
Things started very well for the Russian, who managed to break Dimitrov’s serve out to show solid service and take the first set 4-6 and everything seemed to indicate that the Russian would win the game after placing himself with 1-4 and serve in favor in the second sleeve. However, Medvedev began to be erratic with his serve and that gave wings to Dimitrov, who managed to chain five consecutive games to take the second set 6-4.
In the third set, the Bulgarian again took advantage of Medvedev’s mistakes (he made 29 unforced errors for 16 winners) to break his serve up to two times and go 5-1 in favor. However, in a fit of pride, Medvedev managed to break Dimitrov’s serve as it served to win the match and win one more game, though his threat of a comeback ended there, since in his second opportunity to close the game on service Dimitrov took the game in white to culminate the great surprise of the tournament. Now Dimitrov will seek to continue giving the surprise in the quarterfinals of Indian Wells, where He will meet with the Polish Hubert Hurkacz, who easily beat Russian Aslan Karatsev 6-1, 6-3.
Tsitsipas, Zverev y Schwartzman no fallan
Better luck than Medvedev had the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, second favorite for the title, despite the fact that the Greek also had numerous difficulties to overcome Australian Alex de Miñaur 6-7 (3), 7-6 (3) and 6-2 after a battle lasting 2 hours and 43 minutes. Tsitsipas wanted to take the initiative in the first set but De Miñaur reacted quickly to recover the lost break and force the tie-break, where four unforced errors by the Greek allowed him to take the first set.
The second set began with a similar script, with Tsitsipas breaking the serve and De Miñaur resisting even in critical moments, since he managed to break the Greek’s serve when he was 6-5 and served to win the set. However, in the tiebreaker De Miñaur was hampered by his mistakes and this allowed Tsitsipas to force the third set. In the final sleeve, the Greek broke De Miñaur’s serve in the fourth game and that allowed him to take a distance that would be worth to close the set and the match 6-2 after a new break. Tsitsipas will now seek a place in the semifinals against Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili, who defeated Russian Karen Khachanov 6-4, 7-6 (6).
The German Alexander Zverev had less trouble to pass the round, who continues to show his great moment of form in this 2021 season. The German, current Olympic champion, He beat Frenchman Gael Monfils 6-1, 6-3 in just over an hour. Zverev was very solid on serve, as he only conceded one break opportunity that Monfils did not take advantage of, and he was also very good to the rest, winning four of the eight break balls he had. In the quarterfinals Zverev will meet one of the revelations of the tournament, Taylor Fritz, that after getting rid of Berretini, he managed to overcome the Italian Jannik Sinner by 6-4 and 6-3.
Argentine Diego Schwartzman will also be in the quarterfinals, who gave another of the surprises of the day after beating Norwegian Casper Ruud by a double 6-3 in one hour and 43 minutes of the game. The ‘Peque’ showed his aggressiveness and courage on the court, saving 3 of the four break balls he faced in a match in which he was intractable with up to 29 winners. Schwartzman will now seek the semifinals against Briton Cameron Norrie, who beat American Tommy Paul 6-4, 4-6 and 6-2.