Number six in the world and lulled by three consecutive titles, Russian Daniil Medvedev started early this Saturday, Friday night, at the Masters 1000 in Indian Wells, California.
The former world No. 1 dominated American Brandon Nakashima, 48th, scoring 6/4 6/3 after 1h26min on the center court of the event.
Champion in Doha, Rotterdam and Dubai, this time defeating Novak Djokovic, the Russian scores his 15th straight victory and won all the last 17 sets he played. He has 20 wins from 22 matches this season.
He is now looking to repeat his best result in the Californian tournament, which was the round of 16 in 2021. His opponent will be Belarusian Iliya Ivashka, 85th, whom he has defeated in three of the four games so far.
Medvedev had problems early in the game with Nakashima’s good pace, but Medvedev soon found the speed of the ball and the floor and began to dominate, breaking to close the set and opening 2-0 in the second. Nakashima had two games putting pressure on the Russian’s service, varying the game and going for it, but he didn’t take advantage of the chances of breaking. Medvedev held the service and broke again in the eighth game defining the victory.
