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World No. 1 Daniil Medvedev admitted the second set versus Botic van de Zandschulp was not great from his side, but added he's glad that he was able to close out the match in straight sets. After a first round bye, Medvedev kicked off his Cincinnati campaign with a 6-4 7-5 victory over van de Zandschulp.
In the first set, Medvedev broke van de Zandschulp in the opening game and then held on to his serve the rest of the set to win the opener. After winning the first set, Medvedev earned the first break of the second set in the fifth game to go up by a set and 3-2 in the second set.
Just when it seemed the match was over, van de Zandschulp broke back Medvedev in the sixth game and had a set point on the Russian's serve in the 10th game. But Medvedev was able to save the set point and break van de Zandschulp again in the 11th game, before serving out for the match in the 12th game.
Medvedev: The first set was great, the second set wasn't
"The second set was not that clean," Medvedev said after the win, per the ATP website. "The first set was great. Everything was working. I had three games where I had break points but managed to break in the first game, which was enough.
The second set was going not that bad. He was not serving especially well today, doing a lot of double faults. So I tried to keep pressure, use my chances. Actually on return, I feel like I did a good job. Two breaks on these fast courts is enough to win and I should have done a little bit better on my serve.
But the first match is tricky band I'm happy that I managed to go though, and hopefully I will raise my level in the next matches." It was the third meeting between Medvedev and van de Zandschulp. Medvedev now has a 3-0 head-to-head versus van de Zandschulp.