The Russian was not even embarrassed by force majeure.
Wimbledon has crossed the equator, and the men’s bracket of the tournament is simply an amazing picture for Russian fans. Already two of our tennis players secured the quarterfinals.
Now it’s up to the first racket of Russia. This year, Medvedev has already repeated his best achievement at Wimbledon, reaching the fourth round. But the form of Dani and his opponent set up in a positive way.
However, hardly anyone expected that our player would go through to the next round so easily.
Confident Medvedev
Despite a busy career, Medvedev has not yet had a meeting with a very promising Czech Jiri Legechka. And the point here, of course, is the age of the opponent – he is only 21 years old. However, experts already believe that the 37th racket of the world can beat the tops of the world ranking.
In the previous round, Jiri passed the American Tommy Paul, who ranks 15th in the ATP rating, although he spent a lot of energy – he had to fight all five sets, three of which ended in tie-breaks.
Against the background of this path of the Czech to the 1/8 finals, Medvedev’s resource should have been more: nevertheless, with Fucovic, our player ran four sets without tie-breaks and won outwardly easily. And the beginning of the match confirmed this. In the very first game, the Russian made a break, and then calmly controlled the course of the game.
For the first game, the opponent did not have a single break point, but Danya could take Legechka’s serve more than once. It’s good that the backlog created at the beginning was enough, and Medvedev won the start of the meeting (6:4). At the same time, the Russian was not perfect, having made 12 unforced errors during the set, but Jiri had even more of them (14).
insidious callus
During the break, the camera showed a close-up of the leg of the Czech, who was diligently rewinding the callus. Obviously, this made him uncomfortable, because in the pauses between draws, Jiri limped.
In the second set, Legechka continued to experience problems. In the third game, he lost his pitch and sank a bit. The moment came when Medvedev could develop success, especially since Danya played his serve flawlessly.
But then the unexpected happened – someone in the stands felt bad, and the referee suspended the game. Medics assisted the spectator, and the athletes struggled with their nerves on the benches to rest.
After 10 minutes, with the score 30:30 on the serve of the Czech tennis players again took to the court. Danya immediately created a break point, but the Czech won it back. Then three more times the Russian could make a second break during the set, but did not achieve success. But Jiri converted his first chance into a winning game: 2:3.
Local success, however, did not become a turning point. The callus, which did not seem too serious, made itself felt and prevented Jiri from playing at full strength. Danya felt it and pressed harder and harder. As a result, our player still succeeded in another break, after which Medvedev took the second set (6:2).
Heading for a break, Danya was surprised to notice that the opponent decided to stop the fight. Legechka could not move freely around the court, and it is useless to count on a victory over Medvedev without a full calculation.
This refusal provided the Russians with the first Wimbledon quarter-final in history, in which he will play with the winner of the Eubanks-Tsitsipas pair. So far, this tournament is developing very favorably for Daniil.
I am a sports journalist who has written for a number of Sportish. I have a background in journalism and have been writing since I was young. My main focus is sports news, but I also write about general news. I am currently working as an author at Sportish.
(Melbourne) The ex-no 1 world Naomi Osaka (current 17e in the WTA rankings) qualified Tuesday in three sets for the second round of the Australian Open.
Crowned in Melbourne in 2019 and 2021, the Japanese won 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 against the Croatian Antonia Ruzic (65e).
The four-time Grand Slam winner will play in the next round against Romanian Sorana Cirstea (41e), who started the last Australian Open of her career at age 35 by eliminating the German Eva Lys (39e).
Entering the court with a white parasol, a wide-brimmed hat and a long white train, Osaka started the match with her feet on the ground to quickly lead 3-0.
Ruzic recovered to 3-3 before again losing three games in a row and the first set.
The Croatian responded in the second round, winning by the same score.
In the decisive set, Osaka broke from the start to break away at 2-0, but Ruzic came back to her level again before taking her throw in to lead 4-3, service to follow.
This time it was the Japanese who held on to get back to 4-4, before inflicting a shutout then a new break on Ruzic to seal her qualification with a final winning backhand, after almost 2 hours 30 minutes of fighting.
Osaka played her first Grand Slam match on Tuesday since her semi-final at the United States Open in September, her best run in a major tournament since she returned to the circuit in early 2024 after the birth of her first child.
I am a sports journalist who has worked in print and online. I have authored articles for a sports website and have covered sports news for over 6 years.
(Melbourne) World No.2 Jannik Sinner, double title holder, benefited on Tuesday from the retirement of Frenchman Hugo Gaston (93e), injured his abdominals, to qualify for the second round of the Australian Open.
The 24-year-old Italian was leading 6-2, 6-1 when Gaston threw in the towel.
“It’s the abs that have given up a little. I felt the pain in the middle of the first round. I called the doctor immediately at the end of the first round to get an anti-inflammatory,” explained the Frenchman who suddenly felt “like a little stab”.
He fell during the first round after returning a drop shot from Sinner, but he assured that the injury and the fall were not linked.
On the other hand, the pain in his abdominals bothered him a lot “on serve and on high balls”.
“I saw that he was not serving at a very high speed, especially in the second set,” commented Jannik Sinner in his post-match interview on Central.
“I am very happy to qualify, to return to this place that I particularly cherish […]but that’s not the way I wanted to win this match,” added the world No.2.
Sinner’s next opponent will be Croatian Dino Prizmic (127e) or the Australian James Duckworth (88e).
For his first official match of the season, the four-time Grand Slam tournament winner took a little time to settle down, notably having to save three break points in the first game.
But once he managed to take Gaston’s serve in the particularly tight sixth game, Sinner unfolded, winning the next seven games. A few moments after snatching his only game in a one-sided second round, the Frenchman informed his opponent that he was giving up, after a little over an hour of match.
“Giving up pisses me off a bit,” Gaston commented. But hey, on the other hand I can’t afford to play at 50%, even 100%, to beat Sinner…”
Undefeated since his retirement at the beginning of October in the third round of the Masters 1000 in Shanghai, the world No.2 scored a sixteenth victory in a row on Tuesday and joined Carlos Alcaraz (1) in the second round of the Australian Open.er), Alexander Zverev (3e) and Novak Djokovic (4e).
“I felt very well prepared, we worked a lot physically and on the court” during the offseason, said Sinner, who skipped the Davis Cup finals in Bologna in November to have an additional week of preparation for the 2026 season.
For his part, Lorenzo Musetti, seeded fifth, progressed due to the retirement of Raphaël Collignon of Belgium in the fourth round.
The score was 4-6, 7-6 (3), 7-5 and 3-2. The nature of the injury has not been released.
Shelton hits hard
The 23-year-old American Ben Shelton inherited probably the worst draw, in the person of the first ATP player not to have been seeded, the Frenchman Ugo Humbert.
But last year’s semi-finalist, who made his name by reaching the quarter-finals in Melbourne in 2023 despite never having left the United States, was uncompromising and won 6-3, 7-6 (7/2), 7-6 (7/5).
PHOTO MARTIN KEEP, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Ben Shelton
“It’s always difficult to face Humbert in the first round, but I remained very calm, very focused on my game and I played better and better,” he stressed with satisfaction.
He will play in the second round against the Australian Dane Sweeny (182e).
Monfils eliminated in the first round of his last tournament in Australia
Gaël Monfils, who will end his career at the end of the season, was eliminated Tuesday in the first round of his last Australian Open by the inexperienced Australian Dane Sweeny (182e world) 6-7 (3/7), 7-5, 6-4, 7-5.
The 39-year-old Frenchman plays his 23e and final season. Ex-world No.6 currently 110ehe was playing his 20e Australian major since his first participation in 2005. He has reached the quarter-finals twice, in 2016 and 2022.
PHOTO PAUL CROCK, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Gaël Monfils
“My journey began here in 2003 (in qualifying, Editor’s note). We are in 2026 and it is the finish line, but thank you all for accompanying me, you were great,” he told the audience from the court while generally only the winner of the matches, before the final, speaks on the field.
“I fought four hours again today, but this guy (Sweeny) is very strong. I wish him good luck,” he added to his winner.
For the latter, the victory is particularly beautiful, because in addition to having beaten one of the great names in tennis of the last twenty years, he offered himself his first victory in a Grand Slam tournament.
“It’s like I’m in a series… it’s incredible,” he commented. Before the match started, his goal was “win or lose, enjoy the chance to be there.”
As usual, the most popular French player since Yannick Noah spared no effort. And despite the encouragement of the public – in particular from a group of French people – the youth of his opponent (24 years old) visibly prevailed, as Monfils appeared so tired.
Broken one last time to be down 6-5 in the fourth set and the Australian’s service to follow, Monfils failed to reverse the situation.
“You’re here, you played your 20are Australian Open and you have entered a very closed circle: you are six players from the Open era (since the 1969 edition) to have reached this bar,” tournament director Craig Tiley told him, who came to greet him on the court.
“We want to thank you for your career, your attitude and the way you taught us how to play this wonderful game. Well done,” added Tiley.
Monfils’ last match in Melbourne, greeted by a hearty ovation from the public with “thank you Gaël” sung in the stands, lasted 3 hours 51 minutes.
I am a sports journalist who has worked in print and online. I have authored articles for a sports website and have covered sports news for over 6 years.
Russian tennis player Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Danish Clara Tauson reached the second round of the Australian Open in Melbourne.
Pavlyuchenkova and Towson beat the duo Lyudmila Kichenok/Katie Volynets (Ukraine/USA) with a score of 6:7 (6:8), 6:4, 6:4. The meeting lasted 2 hours 52 minutes.
The next opponents of Pavlyuchenka and Tauson will be the winners of the meeting Guo Hanyu/Kristina Mladenovic (China/France, 16) – Alicia Parks/Dayana Yastremskaya (USA/Ukraine).
Grand Slam Tournament. Australian Open. Melbourne (Australia). Hard. Total prize fund: about $75 million
I am a sports journalist who has written for a number of Sportish. I have a background in journalism and have been writing since I was young. My main focus is sports news, but I also write about general news. I am currently working as an author at Sportish.
