Indian Wells – Daniil Medvedev has won his first tennis match as world number one and entered the third round at the Masters in Indian Wells.
The Russian, who is playing as a neutral athlete because of the war in Ukraine, defeated Tomas Machac of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-2.Medvedev was reserved about the criticism, especially from some Ukrainian athletes, that tennis players from Russia should be allowed to continue playing. “It is not up to me to decide. I follow the rules,” he said. “I want to play my favourite sport.” Tennis, he said, is an individual sport.
The 26-year-old had replaced Novak Djokovic at the top at the end of February and is the 27th professional since the rankings were introduced to claim the top spot. “It was nice, I had a nice reaction from the crowd,” Medvedev said. “I also liked the way I played. Openers can be tough. I’m happy with how everything went today.”
Medvedev is the number one seed in the hard-court tournament, which is worth around 8.6 million US dollars, and had a bye in the first round, as did Olympic champion Alexander Zverev, the number three seed.