​Daniil Medvedev also failed to get the long-awaited result on clay in Madrid: the Russian finished eighth, losing to his compatriot Aslan Karatsev.

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Daniil Medvedev defeated by Aslan Karatsev at the ATP in Madrid

Ranked 121st in the world (up from 14th in February 2022), Karatsev defeated Medvedev in straight sets, 7-6(1), 6-4. The game lasted one hour and 37 minutes.

Aslan (2021 Australian Open semi-finalist) will face the winner of the match between American Taylor Fritz (10 ATP, favorite 8) and China’s Zhizheng Zhang (99 ATP) in the quarters.

Slag remains Danylo Medvedev’s main enemy

Ahead of the Caja Magica competition, Medvedev said his relationship with clay would never improve.

“I don’t think anything will change, don’t believe it. I joked about it with my coach. Maybe in the last year of my career I will go to him and say: “Listen Gilles, we will prepare, we will only play on clay this season, so I can get better and better.”

The thing is, I have to train more in the preseason if I want to improve my game on the ground, but I can play so well in the lineup that it comes down to priorities.

I can’t tell myself before the Australian Open that I will play two weeks of pre-season training on clay, because we are not 100% sure that it will help me,” said Daniil Medvedev.

The ATP Mutua Madrid Open takes place from April 25 to May 7 on clay in the Caja Magica complex. It is in the ATP 1000 category, has a total prize money of 7,705,780 euros, and the titular champion is Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz.