The Terra Wortmann Open in Halle, Germany, has suffered a few shocks in the last few days with several top seeds getting eliminated, the latest being Daniil Medvedev who crashed out to Zhizhen Zhang in three sets.
The Russian, seeded three and world No.5 fell in the second round to the world No.42 from China, 6-3 2-6 7-6(5) after clearing his first opponent in straight sets to open his grass court campaign.
The Russian’s form however, crumbled in his second match when he was simply out-served by his opponent who took the opening set in 29-minutes.
Medvedev, after changing tactics and adopting a more aggressive approach, looked to have turned the match around in the second and managed to retain his focus for the decider when the match resumed after Zhang had taken a comfort break.
He broke to take a lead only to drop his own as Zhang as the pair settled down to try and out-play each other but the matter was eventually resolved by a tiebreak which Medvedev initially looked to have control of when he pulled out a superb passing shot to leave Zhang prone on the court, smiling as he slowly got to his feet.
But it stayed tight right to the end – with Medvedev missing his first serve on match point and then pushing a forehand long to leave Zhang walking to the net with his arms aloft for one of the best wins of his career.
He’ll play Chris Eubanks in the quarter finals, after the American knocked out the seventh seed from Kazakhstan Alexander Bublik 7-6(5) 4-6 6-3.
Elsewhere, the Italian Matteo Berrettini, last week’s beaten Stuttgart finalist, continued his strong grass court season by beating qualifier Alex Michelsen of the US 7-6(5) 6-2
There were also wins for Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff and Frenchman Arthur Fils, with a mixture of first and second round matches being played.
The world No 1, Italy’s Jannik Sinner wasn’t on the schedule in the singles but opened his campaign earlier in the week with a hard-earned victory over Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor 6-7(8) 6-3 6-2 but should be in action on Thursday against Russia’s Roman Safiullin.
The last match of the day saw Alexander Zverev, the second seed, defeat Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego 6-4 7-6(5) and he will now face Fils, a 6-3 6-4 winner over the German wildcard, Dominik Koepfer.
For the record Andrey Rublev and Felix Auger Alissime were both eliminated in the opening round. Rublev seeded 4 and the defending champion, went out to American Marcos Giron 6-4 7-6(5) while Aliassime, seeded 8 was forced to retire when trailing the German wildcard Dominik Koepfer 6-4 4-3.
Zhang Zhizhen scores the best win of his career
(Photo by Franco Arland/Getty Images)
