Shanghai: Daniil Medvedev on Wednesday got his revenge against US teenager Learner Tien, beating him in a nail-biter 7-6 (8/6), 6-7 (1/7), 6-4 to proceed to the Shanghai Masters quarterfinals. There he will meet world number seven Alex de Minaur, who cruised past Portugal’s Nuno Borges 7-5, 6-2 earlier in the day.
Victory in Shanghai comes over a week after the 36th-ranked Tien took the Russian out of the China Open semifinals in Beijing.
“He’s an unbelievable tennis player,” Medvedev said. “Outside of the big three, he may be the toughest opponent I’ve ever faced.”
Medvedev broke first in the ninth game, but Tien returned the favour immediately.
The last two games of the first set saw the two players locked in an epic back-and-forth, their prolonged rallies thrilling the crowd.
Both faced a breakpoint but managed to hold, with Medvedev smashing a looping lob from Tien to send them to a gripping tiebreak.
Medvedev broke early in the second set, but Tien was again unfazed- breaking back in the fifth and then seventh game, before the former world number one levelled again in the tenth.
Medvedev began limping just before the second-set tiebreak and spoke briefly with a medic before hobbling back onto the court.
Tien went 3-0 up as the Russian, ten years his senior, tried to stretch out on court, becoming increasingly irate as the match was pushed to a decider.
A scrappy third set full of double-faults from both players was decided when Medvedev broke in the ninth game with a backhand. Agencies
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