A late-night start didn’t bother Daniil Medvedev on Tuesday evening. After a long stint of waiting out the rain on a misty day at Indian Wells, it was his opponent Tommy Paul, who failed to get his engine revving in time for the 10 PM start.
Two-time BNP Paribas Open finalist Medvedev got off the mark quickly in a rematch of last year’s semifinal, and weathered a mid-match purple patch from Paul to pull away with a lopsided 6-4, 6-0 victory.
“Happy that I managed to raise my level during the match, and that I got the win,” said the 2023 and 2024 Indian Wells runner-up.
The victory sends Medvedev into the quarterfinals to face 20-year-old Frenchman Arthur Fils, and improves his lifetime record at Indian Wells to 19-7 overall.
“He plays good,” Medvedev said of the Frenchman, who defeated Marcos Giron in three sets to reach his first Masters 1000 quarterfinal earlier on Tuesday. “I watched his matches here – he’s in good shape. We only played once, he was younger, so it will be a different matchup.”
The contest started fast and finished even faster for the former World No.1.
A vintage Medvedev passing shot from well behind his baseline eluded a net-rushing Paul and the No. 6 seed had the early break early for 2-0. After 12 minutes, and more lethargic play from the American, Paul was already behind four-love.
Rallied by an enthusiastic crowd Paul finally got to work and dialed in his versatile attack to reel off for consecutive games, but he would lose the plot shortly thereafter as he dropped the final eight games of the contest to fall to 1-4 lifetime against Medvedev.
It was a match of streaks, with Medvedev winning the first four games, Paul taking four, then Medvedev taking each of the last eight games to cruise to victory in 74 minutes.
“Breaks of serve don’t mean much here,” Medvedev said. “Even when he came back in the first I said to myself just try and push. I managed to raise my level during the match and I’m happy about it.
“Whoever won some games won them in a row,” Medvedev said. “I think we both went in a little bit rusty – him more rusty than I did.”
