French Open: Daniil Medvedev reaches third round after Miomir Kecmanovic retires

PARIS: The World No. 5 Daniil Medvedev reached the third round of the ongoing French Open 2024 after his opponent Miomir Kecmanovic was forced to retire in the second set on Thursday. World No. 5 Medvedev led Kecmanovic 6-1, 5-0 when play was stopped on Court Suzanne Lenglen after 55 minutes match.

The fifth seed performed faultlessly the whole match. With just six unintentional mistakes, the 28-year-old dominated baseline rallies and gradually wore down Kecmanovic with his exquisite precision and depth. With this win, Medvedev's record against the pair in their ATP Head2Head series increased to 4-0. The Argentine Mariano Navone or the Czech Tomas Machac will be the next opponent for the No. 5 in the ATP Rankings, who is aiming for his second major.

With an 8-3 record on clay this year and a 9-7 record at Roland Garros, Medvedev's finest performance came during a run to the quarterfinals of the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Madrid. In other second-round action, Grigor Dimitrov stormed past Hungarian Fabian Marozsan 6-0, 6-3, 6-4 in a match that lasted for one hour and 40 minutes.

With 34 winners to 19 unforced mistakes, the 10th seed won 89 per cent (34/38) of his first-serve points and demonstrated strong play from the baseline to advance to the third round in Paris for the eighth time. The 33-year-old will next face either German Maximilian Marterer or Belgian Zizou Bergs.

Elsewhere, Italian Matteo Arnaldi also sealed his place in the third round in Paris for the first time when he dispatched Alexandre Muller 6-4, 6-1, 6-3. The 23-year-old will next take on sixth seed Andrey Rublev. American Sebastian Korda overcame Soonwoo Kwon 6-4, 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 and set a third-round clash against third seed Carlos Alcaraz.