Daniil Medvedev served superbly against Andy Murray to ease to a straightforward 6-4, 6-2 triumph at Hard Rock Stadium and will face Spain’s Pedro Martinez next.
Daniil Medvedev inched closer to regaining his world number one ranking after clinching a splendid straight-set 6-4, 6-2 triumph over Andy Murray in the ongoing Miami Open 2022 at the Hard Rock Stadium on Saturday. Following this emphatic win over the three-time Grand Slam champion, the Russian will now face Spain's Pedro Martinez next.
Medvedev lost his No. 1 ranking after just 18 days, having failed to go deep in Indian Wells, but will regain it again from the absent Novak Djokovic if he reaches the semi-finals in Florida.
With the Serbian and 21-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal missing, the 26-year-old is favourite to clinch the Miami Open crown.
"For sure, guys going against you are going to have more motivation if you are the top seed," Medvedev told AFP after the win over Murray.
"It could be the biggest win of their season, but I like to be in this position. The more pressure you have, the more you expect from yourself. At the beginning of my career, I would be really happy when I was in the third round for the first time, but now I want to achieve more. So yeah, there's definitely more pressure but also more motivation to continue doing well," the Russian added.
Medvedev expressed delight upon reaching the pinnacle of men's tennis for a brief period and stated that he is determined to regain the coveted crown.
"It felt good to touch it. Reaching No.1 is something that nobody can take away from me, even if it was for two weeks. But when I did lose it, I just headed back to the practice court and knew I had to get to the semis in Miami to get it back again. I have a lot of motivation to stay at No.1 for a long time," the Russian concluded.
Also read: Ukraine war: Medvedev may have to assure he doesn't support Putin to compete in Wimbledon
As for Andy Murray, who played with a metal hip after two operations to fix the problem that almost forced him to retire, he hopes he can go beyond first-round wins in upcoming tournaments.
"My level of tennis wasn't good enough to win matches like that, but Ivan will bring clarity over the right way to play," said the Scot. The latter will spend time working with Czech legend Ivan Lendl in Florida before skipping the clay-court swing of the ATP Tour to ensure he's prepared for Wimbledon later this summer.
"I don't think I have been practising the right things for 18 months or so. It's difficult to sort of undo that space. That's one of the reasons why I'm taking a big period of training to change some of those things and hopefully get my game to a place where it's more competitive against the top players again," Murray added.
"I do feel like I played better here than I did in the previous tournament in Indian Wells, but it's going to take a lot of work," the three-time Grand Slam champion concluded.
Meanwhile, world No. 5 Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece punched his ticket into the third round after seeing off big-hitting American J.J. Wolf 6-4, 6-7 (5/7), 6-1. Tsitsipas will face Australian Alex de Minaur for a place in the last 16.
Also read: French Open 2022: Unvaccinated Djokovic receives green signal to defend title
