Daniil Medvedev sweeps Andrea Vavassori aside with confident victory on clay in Madrid Open

An excellent start to the 2023 season continued for Daniil Medvedev at the Madrid Open on Saturday afternoon with a dominant straight-sets victory over Andrea Vavassori.

The 27-year-old now has 32 competitive victories so far this season. His hot start to the campaign might have been threatened by the switch to his least favoured surface, but a quarter-final run in Monte-Carlo augurs well.

The 6-4 6-3 win over the Italian in Madrid only underlined Medvedev’s bona fides.

Vavassori held his own for much of the match but failed to hurt his opponent, while Medvedev claimed the key breaks in each set to advance in just 82 minutes.

Qualifier Vavassori had earned his meeting with Medvedev with a tenacious win over Andy Murray, but he couldn’t rise again today, with his opponent dominating physically via his booming serves and metronomic baseline work.

Medvedev is looking for a first ATP title on clay in Madrid, having reached only one final on this surface but losing to Dominic Thiem in Barcelona in 2019.

Victory in Madrid would give Medvedev his fifth trophy of an excellent season.

After dispatching Vavassori, Medvedev was effusive.

He said: “I played well today. I felt good. There were some tight moments in the match, but when we had rallies from the baseline, I felt like many times I was in control. I’m really happy about my level.”

He continued: “I just want to play my best. Sure, everyone is saying here I should like it a little bit more than other clay courts because the serve goes a bit faster, the court is faster.

“So far, I haven’t done well in Madrid, but today was a great match and I just hope for more matches like this in the next two weeks.”

But there is still plenty of tennis yet to be played in the Spanish capital.

Up next for Medvedev is Alexander Shevchenko; another qualifier.

The 22-year-old beat J.J. Wolf to advance to the tournament proper before destroying Jiri Lehecka 6-1 6-1 in just 45 minutes.

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