Daniil Medvedev avoided another disappointment at home

The first two favorites of the ATP 500 from St. Petersburg delivered on their debut, although the first in the seed had to suffer much more than budgeted. The defending champion, Russian Daniil Medvedev, rallied a set against and defeated Frenchman Richard Gasquet with 3-6, 6-3 and 6-0 sets, after an hour and 37 minutes of action.

Medvedev is coming off a clay-court tour into oblivion and did not get off to a good start defending his crown at home, although he did count on his powerful serve by posting a total of 22 aces to placate his opponent.

In the same way, Canadian Denis Shapovalov entered the second round, and he did so without losing his temper by defeating Serbian Viktor Troicki in straight sets 6-2, 6-3. Shapovalov added ten ‘aces’ and was 75% effective on the first serve.

In more results of the day on the Russian hard court, the American giant Reilly Opelka also needed three sets to beat Croatian Nino Sedarusic (3-6, 7-6 and 6-2). As is already a custom, it was a concert of direct aces by the North American with 26.

Frenchman Ugo Humbert defeated local Pavel Kotov 4-6, 6-2 and 6-3, while Ecuadorian Emilio Gómez fell by the wayside by falling 6-4 and 6-2 at the hands of home player Roman Safiullin .

This was the activity of the day in the ATP 500 in Saint Petersburg, awaiting the night game between the Swiss Stan Wawrinka, fifth seed, and the Russian Evgeny Donskoy, in a corresponding duel of the second round of the indoor tournament . Do you see Medvedev repeating this week as the tournament champion?