Medvedev wants to repeat last year’s run

The top two seeds at the Open 13 Provence tournament made their first appearance in Marseilles on Thursday and promptly won their first matches to march into the quarter-finals.

You always have to remember good moments. I know that I can play good indoors, for sure. It was a really good match today, so looking forward to tomorrow. Daniil Medvedev

Daniil Madvedev, the top seed, beat Egr Gerasimov in 71-minutes, 6-2 6-4 and then insisted it had not been an easy match and that he had not taken world No.76 lightly.

“I think Egor is always a good player on indoor hard courts. I actually think it was not his best match, especially at the beginning of the first set. He was doing some mistakes, I took advantage of it, so that’s what I have to do,” Medvedev said in his on-court interview.

“I have to focus on myself. I feel like I was playing well.”

Medvedev plays the rising Italian teenage star Jannik Sinner and against insists it won’t be a walkover!

“He’s a really strong player, so it’s going to be an interesting match,” Medvedev said.

“That’s a tough draw. I could definitely have an easier draw with playing Egor straight away and Jannik in the quarters. But it’s also good to play if you’re actually ready to win the tournament or not.”

Last year Medvedev was the player to beat as he built a 20 match-winning streak and then badly lost the Australian Open final to Novak Djokovic and was bundled out of Rotterdam in his opening match.

“It’s time to build a new streak, a new dynamic,” Medvedev said following his win.

“That’s why tennis is sometimes good and sometimes bad. When you lose first round, you have next week to try to win the tournament.
“But when you win a lot of matches in a row, you can lose a few first rounds and then you are feeling like you’re playing very bad,” the world No.3 continued.

“You always have to remember good moments. I know that I can play good indoors, for sure. It was a really good match today, so looking forward to tomorrow.”

Also through is the second seed and two-time defending champion Stefanos Tsitsipas who ousted Frenchman Lucas Pouille 6-2 6-3 in 64-minutes.

The Greek star was always in control despite losing his serve once and on this form is on course for a third Marseilles crown.

World no. 138 Arthur Rinderknech, a French qualifier, reached his first ATP quarter-final following a 3-6 6-1 6-2 win over the Spanish 7th seeded Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.