World No. 1 Daniil Medvedev on Thursday produced a great performance in the Western and Southern Open to defeat Denis Shapovalov of Canada in a thrilling hard-fought clash.
The 26-year-old overwhelmed Canadian Shapovalov 7-5, 7-5 in one hour and 45 minutes clash to book a spot in the quarter-finals.
Medvedev shot his flat backhand with consistency, while he stood deep behind the baseline on return to dismiss Canadian's lefty serve and piercing forehand.
In a hard-fought first clash, Shapovalov constantly tried to pull Medvedev around the court, dancing around the ball to strike his forehand into the corners. However, the top seed has become famous for being able to dig deep and perform well under pressure.
Medvedev's watertight groundstrokes forced the Canadian to make one error to multiple on serve at 5-5. Medvedev then swept through his final service game to advance.
World No. 1 will next play American Taylor Fritz after the Indian Wells champion edged Andrey Rublev in three sets.
"The match was pretty tight. I felt that it was a great level. I felt that he was missing a bit more than me but making more points, but that is how Shapo plays," Medvedev said in his on-court interview.
"My goal was to stay there at every point possible and try and put pressure on him when I had the chance. But there were many points where I was just running across the baseline, trying to get back his shots. Generally happy with the level," he added.
On the other hand, Stefanos Tsitsipas advanced to the quarter-finals with a dominant 6-3, 6-3 win against Diego Schwartzman.
Carlos Alcaraz continues his winning run at the Western and Southern Open, where his 7-6(4), 6-1 triumph against Marin Cilic on Thursday made him the event's youngest quarter-finalist since Andy Murray 16 years ago.
( With inputs from ANI )
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