Daniil Medvedev faced a dual challenge on Thursday at the Libema Open, competing in his first grass-court match of the season against Adrian Mannarino. Medvedev, the top seed in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, secured a 7-6(6), 6-4 victory, overcoming a tough first-set tie-break where he saved two set points at 4/6.
This encounter marked their fourth meeting at this tournament — the most frequent matchup in its history — and their ninth overall in the Lexus ATP Head2Head series. The two are now tied at 2-2 in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, with Medvedev holding a slight edge of 5-4 overall. Notably, five of these meetings have been on grass courts, including Mannarino’s five-set win at Wimbledon in 2018.
During this physically demanding match, Medvedev did not face any break points after losing serve in the opening game. He managed to convert two out of nine break opportunities as per Infosys ATP Stats.
“He plays perfect on grass, he plays low, so you cannot really — at least me with my shots‚ I cannot really hit through the ball,” Medvedev said about Mannarino. “I actually make it the same for him, and that’s why we both kind of can’t hit winners from each other’s shots, and so we just play this cat-and-mouse game, which is tough physically for both of us.”
Medvedev advances to his 82nd tour-level quarter-final and his 12th on grass and will face Reilly Opelka next. Opelka defeated Nicolas Jarry with a score of 7-6(5), 6-3 by serving 12 aces.
In other matches, Zizou Bergs came back from a set down to defeat Alexei Popyrin with scores of 6-7(3), 6-2, 7-6(3). Bergs recorded 31 winners and became the first Belgian quarter-finalist since David Goffin in this event’s history.
Bergs will compete against Estonian qualifier Mark Lajal next after Hubert Hurkacz withdrew due to a lower back injury.
Ugo Humbert retired during Roland Garros last month but appeared unaffected by discomfort as he beat Daniel Evans with scores of 7-5, 6-3. The Frenchman converted all three break points he created during his one-hour and forty-one-minute victory according to Infosys ATP Stats.
Humbert aims for his second title this season after winning in Marseille and will face Nuno Borges in the quarter-finals.