Nadal will remain number two after Medvedev's defeat

Daniil Medvedev and the German Alexander Zverev stumbled in the first round of the ATP 500 in Rotterdam and the defeat of the Russian means that the Spanish Rafael Nadal will retain second place on the world list for another week. His executioners were the Serbian Dusan Lajovic and the Kazakh Alexander Bublik, who achieved the best victories of their career, respectively.

Medvedev, three of the world, semi-finalist of this tournament in 2019 and who arrived in Rotterdam after fighting for the title at the Australian Open, He needed to reach the final of this competition to unseat the Spanish from number two and thus become the fifth player to occupy the second world place (Federer, Nadal, Murray and Djokovic) since July 25, 2005. But the Serbian Dusan Lajovic , A disciple of Spanish coach José Perlas, he defeated him 7-6 (4) and 6-4, in one hour and 36 minutes, and frustrated his goal.

Earlier, the victorious dynamics of Kazakh Alexander Bublik, 43rd in the world, was evident in his duel against Zverev, beating the German 7-5, 6-3. Zverev took the lead in both sets but Bublik's reaction, a recent finalist in the Singapore tournament, evidenced the lack of claw of the German to finish in both, and the Kazakh sealed his victory in the first match against the number seven in the world and third favorite, in one hour and 20 minutes. Yes they advance to the second round the belgian David Goffin, recent winner in Montpellier, (defeated Jan Lennard Struff 6-4 and 6-0), the Japanese Kei nishikori (6-3, 2-6 and 7-5 to Alex de Miñaur) and the Russian Andrey Rublev (7-5 and 6-2 to Andy Murray).