ATP St. Petersburg: Daniil Medvedev surprisingly fails to Reilly Opelka, Karen Khachanov
Daniil Medvedev failed surprisingly early at the ATP 500 event in St. Petersburg. The top seeded Russian lost to Reilly Opelka in three sets in the round of 16. His compatriots KarenKhachanov and Andrey Rublev and the Canadian Denis Shapovalov, however, are as expected in the quarter-finals.
by Michael Rothschädl
last edit: Oct 15, 2020, 08:39 pm
For Daniil Medvedev, after the bitter defeat against Dominic Thiem in the semifinals of the US Open, things are anything but as desired. The world number six had competed in two clay court tournaments since his trip to North America, in Hamburg and at the French Open in Paris. Both had a surprising opening defeat, in Germany against Ugo Humbert, in Paris against Marton Fucsovics.
Now the sixth in the world rankings failed early on at his home tournament in St. Petersburg, which is played on Medvedev's best surface, the hard court. In the round of 16, the top seeded Russian, who had also traveled to his home country as the defending champion, surprisingly had to admit defeat to Reilly Opelka. Medvedev was able to dominate round one, but two late breaks in sets two and three sealed the early elimination of the tournament favorite.
Things went better for Karen Khachanov in the night session. Compatriot Medvedevs caught up a set deficit against the next Russian in the draw, Aslan Karatsev, and made it into the round of the last eight. The two youngsters Andrey Rublev and Denis Shapovalov, who are among the top favorites in St. Petersburg, reached the quarter-finals in the afternoon. After losing the opening set, Rublev defeated Ugo Humbert in a hard-fought match, Shapovalov had no problems with Ilya Ivashka.