‘Court 1 king’ Medvedev eases past Kovacevic in Wimbledon opener

p a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/daniil-medvedev/mm58/overview'Daniil Medvedev/a returned to his a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/wimbledon/540/overview'Wimbledon/a lsquo;happy placersquo; in style on Monday afternoon. /p

p The fifth seed dispatched a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/aleksandar-kovacevic/k0az/overview'Aleksandar Kovacevic/a 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 in his first-round match at the grass-court major, where he is aiming to better his semi-final run from 2023. Medvedev converted four of eight break points he earned against the No. 88-ranked Kovacevic to maintain his perfect record on the All England Clubrsquo;s No. 1 Court. /p

p ldquo;It was a great match, to be honest,rdquo; said Medvedev. ldquo;The first match is never easy and there were moments in the match when it was not as easy as the score would suggest. So Irsquo;m really happy with my level and Irsquo;ve still never lost on Court 1, so hopefully I can play a lot more matches on this court.rdquo; /p

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A straightforward victory for a href="https://twitter.com/DaniilMedwed?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@DaniilMedwed/a 6-3 6-4 6-2 against Kovacevic!a href="https://twitter.com/a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/wimbledon/540/overview'Wimbledon/a?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@Wimbledon/a | a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/wimbledon/540/overview'Wimbledon/a?src=hashamp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"#Wimbledon/a a href="https://t.co/G1d1nouvIn"pic.twitter.com/G1d1nouvIn/a/p

mdash; ATP Tour (@atptour) a href="https://twitter.com/atptour/status/1807775687228399922?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"July 1, 2024/a/blockquote

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p The 20-time tour-level champion Medvedev is now 6-0 in first-round matches at a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/wimbledon/540/overview'Wimbledon/a, but it was his other perfect SW19 record he was more eager to discuss in his post-match interview. /p

p ldquo;I played maybe nine or 10 matches here [on No. 1 Court] and Irsquo;ve never lost. I said it last year before the semis, itrsquo;s unfortunate that I have to go to Centre Court, and I lost,rdquo; joked Medvedev. ldquo;This year I got lucky, I managed to practise on Centre before the tournament, so maybe it can give me some edge after, but for the moment I want to play on Court No. 1, enjoy it, and try to win.rdquo; /p

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p The No. 5 in the PIF ATP Rankings will next take on a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/alexandre-muller/mp20/overview'Alexandre Muller/a, a 6-4, 7-6(2), 7-6(5) winner against qualifier a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/hugo-gaston/g09o/overview'Hugo Gaston/a, in London. He will hope to handle any tough moments as calmly as he did against Kovacevic — Medvedev crucially converted the only break point of the second set to assume control of the pairrsquo;s maiden Lexus ATP Head2Head clash. /p

p ldquo;Thatrsquo;s why Grand Slam matches are tough,rdquo; said Medvedev. ldquo;Itrsquo;s never easy to win in straight sets because you need to win three, rather than two sets. Especially on grass, where serve has such a big impact. He was serving well. /p

p ldquo;If I remember correctly, I only had one game where I had a real chance [in the second set]. I got a little bit lucky, but I managed to make a very good return, a winner off his first serve. Irsquo;m happy with how I managed to stay stable throughout the whole match. I never lost my serve and Irsquo;m looking forward to the next round.rdquo; /p

p Should Medvedev reach the third round, he would face 32nd seed a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.atptour.com/en/players/zhizhen-zhang/z371/overview" target="_blank"Zhang Zhizhen/a or a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/jan-lennard-struff/sl28/overview'Jan-Lennard Struff/a. Zhang defeated French qualifier a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/maxime-janvier/j620/overview'Maxime Janvier/a 7-6(4), 6-3, 6-2 in his opening match, while Struff downed a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/fabian-marozsan/m0ci/overview'Fabian Marozsan/a 6-4, 6-7(4), 6-2, 6-3. /p

p [NEWSLETTER FORM] /p