Medvedev Opens Moscow Quest

Second seed Daniil Medvedev began his quest for a fourth ATP World Tour crown of the season with a comprehensive 6-1, 6-2 victory over Dusan Lajovic of Serbia on Thursday at the VTB Kremlin Cup. He will next challenge Lithuanian lucky loser Ricardas Berankis in the quarter-finals.
The 22-year-old Russian, who is now 38-21 on the year, has lifted trophies at the Sydney International (d. De Minaur), the Winston-Salem Open (d. Johnson) and the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships 2018 (d. Nishikori).
Fourth-seeded Serbian Filip Krajinovic struck 12 aces past Evgeny Donskoy, the 2015 semi-finalist from Russia, for a 7-5, 6-4 second-round victory. He will next play Italian Andreas Seppi, who battled hard to overcome Pierre-Hugues Herbert of France 7-6(6), 7-6(5) in one hour and 51 minutes. Seppi recovered from 1-4 down in the first set and saved five set points – three at 4-5 and two at 4/6 in the tie-break.
Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Mirza Basic advanced to the quarter-finals when fifth seed Nick Kyrgios of Australia pulled out ahead of their match with an elbow injury. He will prepare to meet third-seeded Russian Karen Khachanov.
Did You Know?
There have been seven different Russian winners since the VTB Kremlin Cup was first staged in 1990. Andrei Cherkasov (1990-91), Alexander Volkov (1994), Yevgeny Kafelnikov (1997-2001), Nikolay Davydenko (2004, 2006-07), Igor Andreev (2005), Igor Kunitsyn (2008) and the recently retired Mikhail Youzhny (2009) are homegrown champions.
Source: ATP