With Medvedev on the horizon: Christian Garin wins the first round of the Shanghai Masters 1000

The Shanghai Masters 1000 had Chilean celebrations on its first day. Christian Garin (99th ATP) opened fire in the most important tournament in Asia and did so with victory, after beating the American Aleksandar Kovacevic (117th) 6-4 and 7-6 (10).

A triumph which will also pit him against one of the best players on the planet: Daniel Medvedev (3rd). The Russian has just played the final of the United States Open against Novak Djokovic (1st) and that same day he fell in the definition of the ATP 500 title in Beijing against Jannik Sinner (7th). Two defeats which hurt, but which still clearly show that he shows a very high version.

And Garin will have to compete with this one, who unlike the Muscovite, is not in his best tennis moment. After a North American tour where he did not win any matches in the main draws (he successfully qualified for the Canadian Masters 1000), traveled to Italy to play the Davis Cup with Chile, winning his singles match against Sweden, losing to the locals and being kicked out of the final series due to ‘physical discomfort.

After this team experience, he focused on the Asia tour, where fell in the second round of the ATP 250 in Zhuhai and lost in the ATP 500 in Beijing qualifying . He now hopes to change the logic in Shanghai, a tournament which returns to the calendar after four years of absence due to the Covid pandemic and the restrictions that existed in China. The last version dates back to 2019, where Medvedev was champion.

Garin had a great performance this Wednesday by beating Kovacevic, closing the match in two sets and after a difficult tie-break where he had to play 22 points. In total, the meeting lasted 1 hour and 54 minutes, where the Chilean made six aces, converted two breaks and achieved 66% first serves.

The confrontation between Garin and Medvedev will take place in the early hours of this Saturday, but at a time to be confirmed. This will be the fourth time they have met, with a momentary 2-1 advantage for the 2021 US Open champion in the duels already played. Of course, they haven’t played since 2021, where they shared wins. First for the northerner in Madrid then for the Russian at Roland-Garros, both played on clay.

Nicolás Jarry, number 23 in the ATP rankings, is also among the players who will participate in the Chinese Masters 1000, although due to his top seed position he has not yet made his debut. This will only happen on Saturday, the same day as Garin against Medvedev, although the rival is not clear, since he is waiting for the winner of the match between Jordan Thompson (62nd) and Terence Atmane (147th), entered in the table main from the qualifiers.

For the best racket in the country, this will be her fourth participation in the tournament, although it was only in 2018 that she managed to overcome the opening duel of qualifying. There he reached the third round of the main draw.