Daniil Medvedev avenged his August loss to Adam Walton with a 7-5, 7-6(0) win on Thursday at the ATP 250 Almaty Open, booking a place in the quarterfinals.
Medvedev’s Path to Victory
The second seed trailed 1-4 in the second set and saved four break points in the sixth game to avoid falling behind 1-5. He then took control, finishing the match in one hour and 45 minutes and striking 12 winners in the second set. Medvedev, a semifinalist recently in Shanghai and Beijing, has now won eight of his past 10 matches and will face Fabian Marozsan next. Their head-to-head is level at 1-1.
The 29-year-old moved up to 14th in the PIF ATP Live Race to Turin and remains in contention to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals for a seventh straight year. He sits 1,025 points behind eighth-placed Lorenzo Musetti, who currently holds the final spot.
In other action, Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff upset top seed Karen Khachanov 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-3 to reach his third tour-level quarterfinal of the season and earn the 13th Top 10 win of his career. At 35, he is the oldest quarterfinalist in the tournament’s history and will next meet Corentin Moutet.
Shintaro Mochizuki and Alex Michelsen also set up a quarterfinal clash. Mochizuki beat fourth seed Luciano Darderi 6-3, 6-3 in 65 minutes to make his first tour-level quarterfinal of the year. The 22-year-old rose 10 spots to No. 92 in the live rankings and is projected to break into the Top 100 for the first time on Monday. Michelsen arrived on a five-match losing streak but has turned his form around in Kazakhstan, defeating Beibit Zhukayev in the first round and following up with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Aleksandar Vukic.
As the tournament progresses, fans are eager to see how Medvedev and other rising stars perform in their upcoming matches. The competition is heating up, and the promise of thrilling tennis awaits in the quarterfinals.