Top seed Daniil Medvedev on Tuesday suffered a stunning 6-4, 6-3 defeat by Frenchman Ugo Humbert in his first clay-court match of this season at the Hamburg European Open.
Fresh off his run to the US Open semi-finals, world No. 5 Medvedev struggled to find his feet on clay as he was broken three times by Humbert in a lackluster performance.
Humbert, an aggressive baseliner, stole the show in front of a limited-capacity crowd in the opening set when he outlasted Medvedev in a 32-shot rally, finishing with an emphatic forehand.
Photo: Reuters
The result leaves Medvedev’s match record on clay at a dismal 10-17.
One week after becoming a father for the first time, Roberto Bautista Agut celebrated a convincing 6-4, 6-3 victory over two-time defending champion Nikoloz Basilashvili of Georgia.
After the match, Bautista Agut was greeted with a message of support from former world No. 2 and fellow Spaniard Alex Corretja.
Corretja joked that parenting duties might take a toll on Bautista Agut, who would now be tired from sleepless nights rather than his on-court heroics.
“It was very tiring last week. Alex knows well. I think he has three or four kids,” Bautista Agut said.
“I am very proud of my family and very happy to have a new baby in our lives, and it was a really nice experience to live with my wife,” he said.
Meanwhile, Canada’s Bianca Andreescu has pulled out of the French Open and plans to take the rest of the season off to focus on her recuperation, the world No. 7 said.
Andreescu, who did not defend her 2019 US Open crown in New York this year, has not played on tour since the WTA Finals in Shenzhen last year, where she retired with a knee injury that also kept her out of the Australian Open in January.
“I have come to the difficult decision to skip the clay court swing this year and will be taking the remainder of the season off to focus on my health and training,” Andreescu said in a statement.
“As hard as it was to come to this conclusion, I have so much to look forward to in 2021, including the Olympics. I want to use this time to focus on my game so I can come back stronger and better than ever,” she said.
The French Open begins on Sunday.
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Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
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