Russia's Daniil Medvedev celebrates winning the match against Spain's Pedro Martinez. — Reuters pic
MELBOURNE, Jan 23 — Fourth seed Daniil Medvedev of Russia dealt with spells of resistance from Spanish qualifier Pedro Martinez and a bleeding nose on his way to a 7-5 6-1 6-3 win today to reach the third round of the Australian Open.
Medvedev, a US Open finalist last year, arrived in Melbourne in red-hot form, winning all his singles matches at the inaugural ATP Cup before a three-set defeat to seven-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic in the semi-final.
The 168th-ranked Martinez, who had never won a tour-level match before his Australian Open debut this week, could only break his opponent's serve once and created three more chances for a break in the sixth game of the third set but did not have enough to challenge the clinical Russian.
Medvedev's nose started bleeding while he was up 5-0 in the second set and he was back on court firing on all cylinders after a medical timeout to set up a third round clash against Spaniard Jaume Munar or local hope Alexei Popyrin. — Reuters