Zverev beats Bautista Agut, Medvedev powers on in Monte Carlo
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[April 13, 2023]
MONTE CARLO (Reuters) - Alexander Zverev continued to rebuild
his confidence on clay with a 6-4 6-4 victory over Spain's Roberto
Bautista Agut in the Monte Carlo Masters second round on Wednesday
and will next face in-form Daniil Medvedev.
German 13th seed Zverev, who suffered a serious ankle injury in the
French Open semi-finals last year, won his second match in as many
days in his first appearance on the red dirt since the Roland Garros
drama.
Zverev broke for 3-2 in the first set and held serve to take it
before breaking again in the fifth game of the second set.
Bautista Agut, however, broke the German's serve to level at 3-3,
only for Zverev to make the decisive break in the following game.
Russian Medvedev, winner of four hardcourt titles this year,
continued his excellent start to the season with a 6-3 6-2 victory
over Italian Lorenzo Sonego on a surface he has not enjoyed much
success on in the past.
"I always struggle on clay," said third seed Medvedev. "I've had
some good matches where I still struggled. There's no rhythm on
clay, every bounce is a bad bounce and even when it's good you're
expecting a bad bounce."
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RUUD MARCHES ON
Casper Ruud, last year's French Open runner-up, continued his
preparations for the claycourt Grand Slam by battling past Botic van
de Zandschulp 7-5 7-6(1), avenging a three-set defeat by the
Dutchman in Miami last month.
"It's never easy to start at a new tournament and against a player
I've lost to before," said Ruud, who claimed the Estoril title in
the lead-up to Monte Carlo.
"I was a bit sloppy and didn't take my chances but in this case I
was a bit happy because I felt there was some unfinished business."
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Tennis - ATP Masters 1000 - Monte Carlo
Masters - Monte-Carlo Country Club, Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France -
April 12, 2023 Germany's Alexander Zverev in action during his round
of 32 match against Spain's Roberto Bautista Agut REUTERS/Eric
Gaillard
![](../images/ads/current/graue_lda_4_2021.png)
Ruud next plays Jan-Lennard Struff who stunned 14th
seed Alex de Minaur 6-3 6-2. Karen Khachanov also went through with
a 7-6(2) 6-2 win over Ilya Ivashka while eighth seed Taylor Fritz
overcame Swiss veteran Stan Wawrinka 7-6(10) 6-2.
They were joined by Lorenzo Musetti, who blanked Luca Nardi 6-0 6-0
to set up a clash with world number one Novak Djokovic.
Miami runner-up Jannik Sinner advanced after his doubles partner
Diego Schwartzman retired with a shoulder injury trailing 6-0 3-1.
Former U.S. Open champion Dominic Thiem's attempts to revive his
career following a wrist injury were dealt another blow in a 6-2 6-4
loss to ninth-ranked Holger Rune.
The loss extended Thiem's bid for a first win over a top-10 ranked
player since November, 2020.
Denmark's Rune next faces Matteo Berrettini, who celebrated his 27th
birthday with a hard-fought 5-7 7-6(1) 6-4 victory over Francisco
Cerundolo.
(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Additional reporting by Shrivathsa
Sridhar and Aadi Nair; Editing by Christian Radnedge and Ed Osmond)
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