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It was the 200th career win for the 25-year-old and his 160th on
hard courts and the Russian showed why he is one of the top
contenders for the title with a clinical display at Arthur Ashe
Stadium in the final match of the opening day.
The 2019 U.S. Open finalist, who also reached the title match of
the Australian Open at the start of the year, broke Gasquet once
in each of the first two sets before the veteran Frenchman
seemed to start struggling physically.
Gasquet, 10 years older than his opponent, started to move
gingerly in the third set in the hot and humid conditions at
Flushing Meadows as Medvedev broke him three times to close out
the match in under two hours.
"I saw a lot of matches today, I had all the day to watch and
all the matches were tough physically," Medvedev said in his
on-court interview.
"Talking about our match the score might seem easy but we played
two hours and first two sets were high intensity. Third set I
was actually not that good physically also.
"I'm happy that I didn't stay out here for five hours and I can
be ready for the next match."
An off-balance pick-up lob from Medvedev in the 10th game of the
first set brought the crowd to their feet before the Russian
produced another immaculate lob against an advancing Gasquet to
win the opening set with his first break.
Gasquet advanced to the net regularly against Medvedev, who has
won 11 of his 12 singles titles on hard courts, but the Russian
had the weapons to dominate from behind the baseline.
Medvedev won six games in a row in the third set and converted
his third matchpoint with a forehand winner to set up a second
round meeting against Germany's Dominik Koepfer.
(Reporting by Sudipto Ganguly in Mumbai; editing by Peter
Rutherford)
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