Russian Daniil Medvedev, ranked “third” in the world, reached the semi-finals of the “China Open Tennis Tournament (500)”, by defeating Frenchman Hugo Hombre 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, on Monday, in Beijing.
According to Agence France-Presse, the first set, which was rich in errors, witnessed the players’ serve being broken 5 times, before play became consistent in the second, which was decided by the Frenchman, who is 25 years old and ranked 36th in the world, after two double faults in a row from the Russian. In the decisive third, Medvedev broke his opponent’s serve twice quickly, ending the match on serve.
The 27-year-old will meet the German Alexander Zverev X, or the Chilean Nicolas Jarre.
Spaniard Carlos Alcarras, ranked second in the world, is scheduled to play later with Norwegian Casper Ruud, on Monday evening, local time.
In the last quarter-final match, Italian Jannik Sinner, ranked sixth, will face Bulgarian veteran Grigor Dimitrov.
Serbian Novak Djokovic, ranked first in the world, will miss the Chinese tournaments for this season.
In the women’s 1000 tournament, Poland’s Iga Szwijontek, ranked second in the world, defeated Spain’s Sara Sorribes Tormo in two clean sets, 6-4, 6-4, to meet Frenchwoman of Russian origin, Varvara Gracheva, in the second round.
Tunisian Ons Jabeur, ranked “seventh” and crowned the fifth title in her career in Ningbo, qualified after defeating American Ashley Krueger 6-3, 6-4, to meet in the second round with Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk.
The “Beijing Tournament” will be held for the first time since 2019, after the country ended its isolationist policies to get rid of the repercussions of the Corona virus. The women’s tournament will also be held for the first time since the game’s governing body decided to end the boycott of China this year, following the case of Ping Shuai, the former world number one doubles player, who filed sexual assault accusations against a senior government official.
