Daniil Medvedev gave himself initial acceleration

In the final match of the first day of the Australian Open, which began in Melbourne, its finalist of the last two years, the eighth racket of the world, Daniil Medvedev, won his most confident starting victory at the Grand Slam tournaments, beating American Marcos Giron in three sets. The next opponent of the 26-year-old Russian tennis player, who has never given up his pitch, will be Australian John Millman.

Tightly knocked down, very fast, already quite experienced, but by and large does not stand out from the general mass of the middle peasants of the first hundred of the world ranking, the American Marcos Giron, even before the start of the game, looked like an ideal opponent for Daniil Medvedev in the first round. It is with such rivals that the contenders for victory in the Grand Slam championships, as a rule, are most convenient to start their tournament path. With a good sense of rhythm and tight shots from the back of the line, they make the favorites work hard, groping for those subtle playing sensations that will have to be used in more difficult matches. However, it was difficult to expect from the same Giron some outstanding feat in the meeting with Medvedev. The fact is that in his 14 majors he won only 7 matches, having suffered defeats 8 times at the very start.

Medvedev, of course, understood that, since there were much more difficult tests ahead, it was not worth wasting too much energy. But he hardly expected to solve the problem of reaching the second round so easily.

Having a very serious (20 km / h) advantage in the average speed of the first serve, the Russian in the vast majority of rallies held the initiative and won 4 times more points with blows right through than the opponent – 29 versus 7 points.

It is not surprising that Giron, who tried to take Medvedev diligently on the back line, but failed to offer him anything else, only occasionally managed to demonstrate the appearance of a struggle. In the first set, the Russian did not give up a single game, in the second – one, and in the third – two. At none of his previous 22 Grand Slams, including 6 in Australia, did Medvedev manage to start so easily.

Its immediate prospects also look quite attractive. In any case, on Wednesday in the second round, Medvedev will have a good opportunity to continue in the same spirit. Australian John Millman, with whom the Russian now plays, is a well-known tennis player. In 2018, he even reached the quarterfinals of the US Open, defeating Roger Federer in the fourth round. However, last season Millman did not show himself in any way, rolling back quite far beyond the top hundred, and he had to spend a lot of energy to win over the Swiss Marc-Andrea Huesler, won in five games in more than four hours.

Competing with the Australians at the Australian Open is always difficult, but Medvedev is no stranger to this: he has already had such a positive experience three times.

In any case, after the victory won a year ago also in the 1/32 finals over a much more dangerous opponent Nick Kirios, he, of course, should not be afraid of Millman.

Kyrios, by the way, on Monday gave a surprise, only not on the court, but on social networks, announcing that he was withdrawing from the tournament. And he even posted a photo of a cyst removed from his left knee on the same day during an arthroscopic operation. For the Australian Open, the absence of such a charismatic figure will certainly be a great loss. But the chances of reaching the second round of the Russian Roman Safiullin, who was supposed to meet with the finalist of last year’s Wimbledon on Tuesday, are increasing. His opponent will now be the lucky loser, Kyiv-born American Denis Kudla.

Meanwhile, some rather disturbing information comes from the camp of nine-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic. Apparently, he is still can’t heal the consequences of an injury to the left thigh received not so long ago at a tournament in Adelaide. Arriving in Melbourne, Djokovic last week reduced his participation in pre-scheduled exhibition meetings to a minimum, and on Monday he almost missed the second training session in a row. In the end, it is true, he entered the court with a bandaged leg, but, according to eyewitnesses, he was extremely careful. Djokovic’s game with world number 75 Spaniard Roberto Carballes Baena is scheduled for Tuesday at the main arena of the tournament in prime time with the last launch.

Evgeny Fedyakov