MELBOURNE, Australia — Peace
broke out between title favorite
Daniil Medvedev and the
Australian Open crowd
on Saturday as the forthright Russian cruised into the last 16.
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In sweltering conditions, the world
number two defeated unseeded Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 in
1hr 55min at Margaret Court Arena.
The atmosphere was considerably
friendlier than it was during Medvedev's high-octane win over home favorite
Nick Kyrgios two days ago at Rod Laver Arena, when he was critical of sections
of the raucous crowd booing him in between serves.
Medvedev, who has a history of
riling up partisan crowds, made headlines when he said afterward: "It is
not everybody doing it but people who are doing it probably have a low
IQ."
But there was no hint of animosity
from the spectators on Saturday, who applauded him during his on-court
interview after his win over Van de Zandschulp.
"It is great. The other night I
did not feel like there was anything wrong," he said.
"I just talked about exactly
one thing, which is between first and second serve, because the rest is, of
course, they are going to support Nick, I am not stupid, you know.
"I like coming to Australia, I
feel like people support me in general here. I want to even say feeling in a
way is like home.
"So I do think it is much more
ups than downs with Australian crowd."
Medvedev, the runner-up a year ago,
is the favorite in the absence of deported defending champion
Novak Djokovic
and is looking for back-to-back Grand Slam crowns after beating the 20-time
Grand Slam champion in the US Open final.
His next opponent is American Maxime
Cressy, who will be making his first round of 16 appearance at a major
following his 6-2, 6-7 (6/8), 6-3, 6-2 win over Australian Chris O'Connell.
Although it was not broken in 14
service games, Medvedev's serve was a little shaky with six
double-faults.
Medvedev also beat the Dutchman in
their only other meeting, in the quarter-finals of last year's US Open.
"In my opinion, he was better
than in the US Open but maybe he served a little bit worse, and that's where I
took my chances," he said. The Dutchman gave up four service breaks.
"Almost like every game where I
could break him I managed to do it. I think I had two games where I didn't
break him when I had break points, but it was enough today.
"I am feeling just confident
and great about my game."
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