Daniil Medvedev reached the 1/32 finals of Wimbledon, beating British Arthur Fury

In his first match at Wimbledon, which continues in London, world number three Daniil Medvedev outplayed little-known Briton Arthur Fury in three sets. This victory allows us to count on the fact that the decline in the game of the Russian, which has occurred in the past few weeks, is left behind and he will be able to show a good result at the grassy Grand Slam tournament. Meanwhile, another first racket of Russia, Daria Kasatkina, defeated Briton Jody Barrage on the Center Court in two games and advanced to the third round.

Daniil Medvedev’s opening match against Britain’s Arthur Fery was postponed from Tuesday to Wednesday due to rain. Moreover, the organizers of Wimbledon changed the venue of this meeting, allocating playing time for it not on the second, as originally planned, but on the first court of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. The opponent of the Russian was a completely unknown tennis player, who occupies only 391st place in the world ranking, has not played a single match in the main draws of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and the Grand Slam tournaments, this year he reached the quarterfinals of the US student championship, playing for Stanford University, and now received a wild card.

This variant of the draw in the first round turned out to be very useful for Medvedev. The Russian is one of those players who, in order to achieve good results, necessarily need a margin of confidence in their abilities, and after a series of inexpressive performances in late May and June, Medvedev largely lost it. Of course, playing against the Brits at the start of Wimbledon is never easy, as they tend to be better adapted to grass courts and enjoy strong public support. But Medvedev’s failure in this case looked unlikely, if only because at the previous Grand Slam tournament, Roland Garros, he had already lost in the 1/64 finals to a clear outsider – the Brazilian Thiago Seibot Wild, and two such embarrassments in a row with tennis players of such a high level almost never don’t happen.

The debut of the meeting was problematic for Medvedev, but along the way he managed to find his game and, after a rain break with a score of 5:5, gradually seize the initiative. The Russian could not avoid two breaks on his serve, as well as individual mistakes, but on the whole he acted quite solidly, won 45 points with shots right through and converted 25 of his 29 exits to the grid. Feri skillfully changed the rhythm at times and generally looked good, but in the third set he was almost doomed, since the whole fight, in fact, was on his serve, and Medvedev kept his easily. As a result – 7:5, 6:4, 6:3 in 2 hours and 12 minutes. Having managed not to spend extra effort, the Russian got a good game practice, and this allows us to count on the fact that in London he will be able to show a good result.

Wednesday’s first game on Center Court also turned out to be Russian-British. There, Daria Kasatkina, who returned to the top ten after reaching the final of the tournament in Eastbourne last week, met with Jody Burrage, who, ranking 108th in the ranking, like Feri, received a wild card at the London Major. The owners had certain hopes for this tennis player. The fact is that in mid-June, for the first time, she reached the final of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) tournament in Nottingham, beating several more famous rivals, including the Australian Open semi-finalist Magda Lynette, a Polish woman. In addition, Kasatkina on Monday in her opening meeting with the American Caroline Doulhide experienced discomfort and twice resorted to the help of a doctor. However, in this case, the Russian woman did not have any obvious problems with her physical condition, the class of her game was much higher, and in exactly one hour she reached the 1/16 finals of Wimbledon for the first time in five years, winning – 6:0, 6:2 .

Evgeny Fedyakov