Medvedev knocked out of French Open by De Minaur
Sports
Medvedev suffered a four-set loss to Alex de Minaur in the French Open fourth round.
PARIS (AFP) – Daniil Medvedev suffered a four-set loss to Australia's Alex de Minaur in the French Open fourth round on Monday as his disappointing record at Roland Garros continued.
The Russian fifth seed, a former US Open champion and six-time Grand Slam finalist, started strongly but slipped to a 4-6, 6-2, 6-1, 6-3 defeat.
De Minaur will face either Alexander Zverev or Holger Rune in his second Slam quarter-final and first since the 2020 US Open.
Medvedev's best performance in the French Open remains a quarter-final run in 2021, while he has also lost in the first round in five of his eight appearances.
"Alex played better," admitted Medvedev, who doubled-faulted on match point.
"To be honest, I'm disappointed to lose, but I don't have anything to tell myself in a tough way like I was not, good attitude today or I was not fighting till the end.
"I did all of this. He played better."
De Minaur had never got past the second round at the tournament before this year, winning just three of 10 matches.
But he has improved on clay this season, also reaching a first Masters quarter-final on the surface in Monte Carlo.
"It's one of my best Slam results. Looks like I've converted myself into a clay specialist," De Minaur said.
He is the first Australian man to reach the French Open last eight since former world number one Lleyton Hewitt in 2004.
A young fan who De Minaur said "gave him life" with his enthusiastic support during the 25-year-old's third-round win over Jan-Lennard Struff was again in attendance, after the 11th seed invited him to watch.
"We found him obviously through the beautiful world of social media, we ended up finding him. We got him to the match," said De Minaur.
"I think he'll be chilling with me tomorrow in my practice day, and of course he'll be there for the very next match."
Medvedev clinched a tight first set thanks to an early break and saving break points in three different service games before closing it out.
But the 28-year-old took a medical time-out early in the second set to have a bandage applied to his foot and then lost seven straight games en route to falling two-sets-to-one behind.
However, Medvedev insisted the problem was not a factor in his performance.
"Not at all," he said. "I had a blister, it didn't help me to call the physio, but I had a blister that got a little irritated so needed to take care of it."
Medvedev battled hard to try and wrestle back the momentum, breaking De Minaur immediately after dropping his serve early in the fourth set.
But De Minaur grabbed the crucial break for a 4-3 lead, reeling off the last four games in the sunshine on Court Suzanne Lenglen to claim his first win over a top-10 player at a Slam since the 2019 US Open.
