Daniil Medvedev secures 200th win, beats Richard Gasquet in opening round of US Open

The world no.2 seed Daniil Medvedev cruised to the second round of the ongoing US Open by beating France’s Richard Gasquet in straight sets by 6-4, 6-3, 6-1. The Russian was able to dominate his opponent and finished the match in little over two hours.

Medvedev was aggressive in his approach but received his first break of the match in the 10th game of the opening set. The 25-year old from Moscow added that the scoreline might look easy but it was a humid day and he had to work hard for his victory.

“It was very humid today,” said Medvedev, in an on-court interview. “The score might seem easy, but we played for two hours. The first two sets were high-intensity. I was actually not that good physically also in the third [set], but it’s better when you’re two sets up than two sets down when you struggle.”

The Russian has been in good form in the recent past as he has a 12-2 record since the Wimbledon exit. Medvedev also won the National Bank Open in Toronto by beating USA’s top seed Reilly Opelka in straight sets before losing to Andrey Rublev in the semifinal of the Cincinnati Open.

The Canadian Open was Medvedev’s fifth ATP 1000 Masters title and he will look to go all the way in the US Open. The Russian had ended US Open 2019 as a runner-up when he lost to Rafael Nadal in a five-set thriller and then lost to eventual winner Dominic Thiem in the semifinal of 2020 edition.

Meanwhile, Medvedev will now face Germany’s Dominik Koepfer in the second round. The World no. 2 had registered a 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, 7-6(2) win over Koepfer in the 2019 US Open fourth round, “I remember it was a very tough match and all the stadium was for him. He played an unbelievable first set-and-a-half.”