Daniil Medvedev narrowly defeated Jesper De Jong in the first round of the Australian Open.

Daniil Medvedev had a turbulent opening match at the Australian Open against Jesper De Jong. Although he won the match 3-0 with scores of 7-5, 6-2 and 7-6 (2), the Russian player showed moments of instability against the resilience of his Dutch opponent.

The resilience of a lesser-known opponent.

Facing one of the world's top players for the first time, Jesper De Jong showed no fear. Despite losing his serve in the first game of the first set, the Dutch player fought back with determination to break his serve in the fourth game. De Jong even surprised everyone by breaking De Jong's serve again in the tenth game to level the score at 5-5.

However, Medvedev's experience came to the fore at the right moment. Taking advantage of his opponent's unforced errors in the next game, the "Russian Bear" regained the advantage and finished the opening set 7-5. In the second set, Medvedev quickly established dominance, leading 3-0. Although De Jong tried to break serve in the fourth game, he was unsuccessful, resulting in a 2-6 defeat in that set.

Drama and mistakes in the deciding set.

Set 3 saw a strong resurgence from De Jong while Medvedev unexpectedly made things difficult for himself. After losing a break in the third game, De Jong persevered. In the tenth game, Medvedev made two inexplicable double faults in a row, giving his opponent the opportunity to equalize at 5-5. The dramatic back-and-forth continued, forcing the set to be decided by a tie-break.

Here, the prowess of the third seed was confirmed. Medvedev completely dominated the tie-breaker and won 7-2, officially ending the match after 2 hours and 55 minutes of competition. Although he advanced, 5 double faults and 36 unforced errors are numbers the Russian player needs to improve in the next rounds.

Match statistics