Paul halts Medvedev’s title defence in Rome

Tommy Paul ended Daniil Medvedev’s Internazionali BNL d’Italia title defence hopes Tuesday with an all-court masterclass in Rome, where the American secured his first Top 20 win on clay to reach the quarter-finals.

The 26-year-old often moved forward to counter the second seed's deep court positioning while also holding his ground in baseline exchanges to oust Medvedev 6-1, 6-4 after one hour and 13 minutes.

“I think it was a pretty clean match for me, other than maybe the first or second game in both sets,” Paul said. “I played some really good tennis. I played pretty aggressive, that was the game plan coming in.”

Paul came flying out of the blocks, breaking the World No. 4 in all three of Medvedev’s service games in the opening set. Medvedev regrouped, breaking Paul to gain a 2-0 lead in the second set before the 14th seed responded by winning four consecutive games.

Boasting an 18-7 season record including a title run in Dallas, Paul utilised the whole court to test the fitness level of Medvedev, who battled through a two-hour, 50-minute match against Hamad Medjedovic on Monday. The New Jersey native was dominant from the baseline, striking 19 winners to reach his first ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final on clay.

Medvedev was aiming to successfully defend a title for the first time. The 28-year-old made just 45 per cent of his first serves and failed to find his usual brick-wall consistency, committing 22 unforced errors, according to Infosys ATP Stats.

Paul, No. 16 in the PIF ATP Rankings, improved to 1-3 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head with the 20-time tour-level champion. The Madrid doubles partners also faced off in Indian Wells, where Paul won the opening set 6-1 — much like Tuesday in Rome — before Medvedev stormed back to win. “He beat the brakes off me last year [in Beijing] and got me in Indian Wells, so this one is good," Paul said.

A two-time tour-level titlist now into his fifth ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final, Paul will next face seventh seed Hubert Hurkacz, who survived Argentine Sebastian Baez 5-7, 7-6(4), 6-4 in a two-hour, 39-minute battle on Pietrangeli. Hurkacz, who was down a break in the second set and again trailed 1/3 in the tie-break, became the 11th active player to reach the quarter-finals at all nine current ATP Masters 1000 events.

The 27-year-old Hurkacz is the third Polish man to reach the last eight in Rome in the Open Era, joining Wojtek Fibak (1982) and Jerzy Janowicz (2013).

Hubi with a MEMORABLE WIN 💫@HubertHurkacz stages an incredible comeback to defeat Baez 5-7 7-6(4) 6-4 and in doing so, completes the set by reaching the quarter-finals at all Masters 1000 events! @InteBNLdItalia | #IBI24 pic.twitter.com/C9MsGw90Ck

— ATP Tour (@atptour) May 14, 2024