Daniil Medvedev expects lots of player withdrawals during US Open

Russian tennis star Daniil Medvedev expects to see a lot of withdrawals at this year's US Open as he thinks this year it will be especially tough for players to recover after their matches. 

The ATP season restarted this week in New York, where the USTA is staging both the Cincinnati Masters and US Open in a bubble. 

On March 12, the ATP suspended the season due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

A best-of-five-set format will still be used at this year's US Open.

"I'm actually wondering, because every player is different. So there are, for sure, going to be players who's going to play a five-hour match and be ready to play even the next day without a day off, which is not the case for everybody," Medvedev said, when asked could playing the best-of-five-sets get sort of ugly.

"So I'm actually really interested to see how that's going to be, and I do think that still a lot of players are going to have problems and we are going to see a lot of withdrawals, especially if it's going to be hot, because as I said before, after six months without competitive tennis to play out of five is tough." 

Playing best-of-five-sets was never a doubt, says Medvedev 

World No. 5 Medvedev would have nothing against playing best-of-three-sets at the US Open.

"I mean, I would be happy about it, but I don't think it was even the question, so there is no question," Medvedev said. 

Daniil Medvedev on best-of-five next week, expecting "a lot of withdrawals." #USOpen pic.twitter.com/x2Zsfnk0mP

— Ben Rothenberg (@BenRothenberg) August 27, 2020

Meanwhile, Medvedev failed to defend his Cincinnati title after losing to Roberto Bautista Agut in the quarterfinal.

Medvedev appeared to be cruising toward a comfortable straight-set win but Bautista Agut then staged a comeback to win 1-6 6-4 6-3. 

Medvedev was up by a set and a break, before Bautista Agut turned the things around.

After the match, the Spaniard admitted he was in bad spirits after easily losing the opening set. 

"After the first set, I was thinking a lot of bad things," Bautista Agut admitted, per the ATP website. "It was a very good comeback."

"I tried to do some different things. I tried to mix up a little bit with the slice...

[I hit] some great volleys and it was a fantastic match for me."

Medvedev made his maiden Grand Slam final at the US Open last year, before losing in five sets to Rafael Nadal.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/32y07cn