Chennai Open: Medvedev brushes aside Monteiro

Chennai: Daniil Medvedev finished the first match of the Chennai Open 2017 in double quick time. The Russian put out Thiago Monteiro 6-3, 6-3 at the SDAT stadium here on Monday with the ease of swatting a fly.

Medvedev, whose biggest ally was his massive serve, set the tone for the match breaking his Brazilian opponent’s serve in the third and fifth games. Meanwhile, he also went through his service games like a breeze, winning most of his first serve points. Although Monteiro put up a fight by breaking Medvedev when he was trailing 1-4 but couldn’t prevent the Russian from wrapping up the set in a little under 45 minutes. Both players initially struggled with the serve due to the unusual windy conditions

Monteiro seemed to find his rhythm in the second set as he exchanged long rallies but he dropped serve in the fourth game to give Medvedev a 3-1 lead. Monteiro let an advantage slip through his fingers in the seventh game.

While both players had the same first service percentage, Medvedev won 33 points from 46. He sealed the match in one hour and 36 minutes to go through to the round of 16. The Russian will face the winner of the match between Moldovan Radu Albot and Yen-Hsun Lu of Taiwan.

Results: D. Medvedev bt Monteiro 6-3, 6-3; S. Darcis bt N. Mektic 6-2, 6-3; D. Sela bt D. Dzumhur 6-2, 6-2; J. Kovalik bt G. Elias 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-2. Doubles: J. Melzer/R.Olivo bt  A. Begemann/Y. Lu 4-6, 7-6(3), 11-9.

Order of play from 5.05 p.m.: Centre Court: Aljaz Bedne vs Guillermo Garcia lopez, Ramkumar Ramanathan vs Yuki Bhambri, Mikhail Youzhny vs Saketh Myneni. Court 1: Renzo Olivo vs Casper Ruud, Benoit Paire vs Konstantin Kravchuk. Doubles: Jonathan Elrich/ Scott Lipsky vs James Cerenttani/ Philipp Oswald. Court 2: 6 p.m.: Radu Albot vs Yen-hsun Lu, Rogerio Dutra Silva vs Dusan Lajovic.