Rafa Nadal will close the round of 16 of the Mutua Madrid Open this Tuesday. He will face the Czech Jiri Lehecka at around 10 pm, a tough test after the marathon match he played yesterday against Pedro Cachín.
It is not known what conditions the Spaniard will bring to the court, but What we do know is who will be his rival in the quarterfinals. in case of success.
It was Daniil Medvedev, who defeated Kazakh Alexander Bublik in one of the first matches of the day, 7-6 (3) and 6-4. The Russian, ranked fourth in the world, had beaten the Kazakh in their previous four matches. With this new achievement, he has also reached at least the quarterfinal round in nine 1,000 category tournaments.
After exchanging breaks in the first set, a Bublik error allowed Medvedev to take a 6-0 lead in the tiebreaker. The Kazakh disoriented his rival with an underhand serve and saved three match points, but a shot from the Moscow giant (1.98 m) decided the set.
Bublik, who is also of Russian origin, broke the racket with blows when the serve was lost in the first game of the second set and received a warning from the referee. He fell down. He found himself 4-0 down and succumbed to the roulette of drop shots, succeeding only occasionally.
When serving to win (5-2), Medvedev committed a double fault and two unforced errors which gave wings to the Kazakh, which closed the gap. It reached 5-4, but on his next serve the favorite closed the match.
After the match, Medvedev referred to his possible match on Thursday against Nadal. “Yesterday I saw Rafa. I saw the third set. I heard he didn’t play very well in the second one. The third set is pretty important in my opinion. He played well and didn’t look tired. “Pedro is,” he said at the foot of the court.
“It’s interesting to see how he is now. I’m super interested to see how it goes and see if Rafa is better or tired. We will see. “I will prepare the winner,” he added.
Source: La Verdad
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