Daniil Medvedev met Larner Thien twice this season: both times he served for the match, but ultimately lost. The third confrontation at the tournament in Shanghai was also not easy for the Russian. Danya missed the chance to finish the match in two games, and besides, his leg hurt.

And yet Medvedev finally managed to put the squeeze on the American, taking revenge on the offender for the failures in Melbourne and Beijing. Even the injury did not stop him from winning.

Tough set at the start

On Wednesday, October 8, at the ATP 1000 series tournament in Shanghai, Daniil Medvedev met Larner Thien in the fourth round. Although the American is 18 positions lower in the world rankings, our tennis player has never managed to beat an opponent. At the beginning of the season at the Australian Open, the Russian served for the match, but missed the victory. Recently in Beijing, Danya was close to the goal again, but was forced to abandon the fight due to cramps.

With two defeats and no victories, Medvedev could still count on the status of favorite – bookmakers offered odds of 1.31 for the Russian to win. It is worth noting that in the previous round he beat Alejandro Davidovich-Fokina in two sets. Tien spent the same two games to pass Cameron Norrie. In the first set, the Briton got on his opponent’s nerves well, but he wasn’t strong enough to do more.

The Russian-American confrontation in Shanghai also began with a stubborn first set. Until the ninth game, everyone took their serve: Tien once managed to do this to zero, but in general, points were not easy for the participants in the match. In the ninth game, Medvedev made a break and could have served for the set, but the American tennis player quickly returned the favor. Soon Larner could have taken the game, but he also failed – it came to a tie-break, in which Daniil played a little better.

An inconvenient opponent

In the second game, for the time being, our tennis player succeeded in almost everything. Danya led 3:0 and was close to taking another serve from his opponent, although in the end he did not succeed. And then something strange happened: the Russian lost five games in a row. It seemed that Medvedev was swimming, but he not only continued to fight, but also managed to turn the situation around, leading 6:5.

Daniil Medvedev / Photo: © Qian Jun/MB Media / Contributor / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

Daniil had a real chance to finish everything in the second set, but, as in Beijing, health problems interfered with the situation. Medvedev’s leg began to cramp, he gave up the most important game, and then lost in the tiebreaker. The score in the sets was equal, but given the Russian’s problems, there was little faith in his success. Will he really lose to the American for the third match in a row?

Fortunately, Medvedev managed to recover in the third set. For a long time the game was equal, in the ninth game Dana managed to take the opponent’s serve, in the 10th he finally put the finishing touches on the awkward American and won the decisive game with a score of 6:4. Now he will have to meet in the quarterfinals with Australian Alex de Minaur, who is also not the easiest opponent for Daniil. But if the problems with his legs do not worsen, our athlete will have every chance to move on.