Rotterdam, Feb 04, 2025, IANS

Rotterdam, Feb 4 (IANS) World No. 7 Daniil Medvedev was put through his paces, overcoming a tough first set to beat Swiss star Stan Wawrinka in a clash between two former winners of the event and remain alive upon return to the ATP Rotterdam Open. The second seed rallied to an entertaining 6-7(8), 6-4, 6-1 triumph over fellow former champion Wawrinka, despite letting two set points in the first set. He, however, recovered well to move into the second round at the indoor hard-court ATP 500 event in his first appearance since he won the title in 2023. In other matches in the Round of 32 in the event, Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, the sixth seed playing on a wildcard, defeated qualifier Harold Mayot of France in straight sets, 8-1. 7-5 while eighth seed Hubert Hurkacz of Poland waltzed past Flavio Cabolli of Italy 6-3,6-2 in a 77-minute battle on Centre Court. Qualifier Mattia Bellucci of Italy defeated Mees Rottgering of the Netherlands 6-3, 6-2 in another Round of 32 clash to reach the pre-quarterfinals on Monday night. The focus was on the Medvedev vs Wawrinka clash considering both are former champions and the former was coming back to the event after a couple of years. Wawrinka, the 2015 titlist in Rotterdam, competed admirably but ultimately ran out of gas as Medvedev cruised across the line. The 28-year-old will next face Italian qualifier Mattia Bellucci. If Medvedev can go on to seal the title this week, it will be his first since the 2023 ATP Masters 1000 in Rome. It would also be the first time that the former World No. 1 has won the same event twice after his previous 20 titles have all come at different tournaments. Having overcome Medvedev in each of their two previous ATP head-to-head meetings, Wawrinka was aware of the task ahead and his game plan was evident from the outset. Not only did the 39-year-old engage in the gruelling rallies, but he went after Medvedev with his sustained aggression. Wawrinka fended off a 29-shot set point, which doubled as the longest rally of the opener, by asserting his dominance and finishing the point at the forecourt. He used this pattern of play to trouble Medvedev for much of the 69-minute first set, during which the Swiss player won 12 out of 17 points when at the net, according to Infosys ATP Stats. Medvedev returned from the toilet break he took at the end of the first set as a completely different player. The No. 7 in the PIF ATP Rankings upped his own level of aggression, which began to gradually draw more errors from Wawrinka and drastically reduce his winner count, which fell from 16 to 5 between the two sets. As the encounter wore on, Wawrinka further struggled to rediscover the range that was firing winners from all angles of the court in the first set. Medvedev finished with a flourish in the final set, in which he did not face a single break point.