Second seed Daniil Medvedev poised a career-best Madrid Masters showing on Monday as he began the wrapup week by holding off qualifier Alexander Shevchenko 4-6, 6-1, 7-5 win.
World No. 3 Medvedev had to twice fight back from a break down in the deciding set before squeezing out victory in two and three-quarter hours on the fast high-altitude clay.
The eventual winner displayed a touch of his infamous temper as he slammed his racquet to the clay and drew boos from the Spanish crowd after losing the opening set.
But the 27-year-old got down to business as he orchestrated his winning recovery effort.
The US Open winner has never been past the third round here in three previous appearances; he won back-to-back Madrid matches for the first time only last week.
Medvedev leads the Tour with a 33-4 match record the season and stands atop the table for the eight-man ATP Finals in Turin in November.
“I play a little bit worse on clay, so that’s why the match was very tight,” Medvedev said after winning his 300th career match win.
“He had all the opportunities to win it.
“On clay, serve doesn’t count as much, so we just continue playing and that’s what I did.
“It was a crazy match, I was really exhausted in the end. But I’m happy that I managed to find a way to win it.
“I managed to put pressure later in the match and it worked.”
