Medvedev Passes Brooksby Test

Daniil Medvedev moved to within one victory of reclaiming the No. 1 spot in the ATP Rankings Tuesday at the Miami Open presented by Itau, overcoming Jenson Brooksby 7-5, 6-1.

The 26-year-old, who is making his fourth appearance in Florida, rallied from 3-5 in the first set as he soaked up Brooksby’s variety of shots in a controlled performance to advance into the quarter-finals after 80 minutes.

“Jenson has the potential to be a top player,” Medvedev said in his on-court interview. “He is really good and plays better than his ranking. I knew it was not going to be an easy match. I had no solutions at the beginning. The crucial moment was when I managed to make him serve for the set and he got a little bit tight and I played a bit better.”

Medvedev will next face reigning Miami champion Hubert Hurkacz or South African Lloyd Harris, knowing a win would move him back to World No. 1 on Monday, two weeks after he lost top spot to Novak Djokovic.

The Balance of Power analysis from Tennis Data Innovation shows the dramatic turnaround in how the match was played between sets. Brooksby had a slight edge in BOP in the first set when he made an explosive start, but Medvedev had a massive nine percentage points advantage in playing from attacking positions when he dominated the second set. (Learn more about Balance of Power)

Set One Balance of Power

Set Two Balance of Power

The top seed is bidding to win his first trophy of the season this week, having reached the final at the Australian Open and the last four at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel presentado por HSBC in Acapulco.

Medvedev, who spent three weeks as the World No. 1 from 28 February to 21 March this year, is a four-time ATP Masters 1000 champion. With his victory over American Brooksby, the World No. 2 equalled his best result in Miami, after also advancing to the last eight in 2021.

Medvedev started slowly against Brooksby on Hard Rock Stadium as he struggled to cope with the World No. 39’s intensity and shot variation. However, Medvedev is not a 13-time tour-level titlist for nothing, and he found his range when it mattered most, breaking back to level at 5-5.

From there he put his foot on the pedal, hitting with great accuracy, depth and precision to force Brooksby into errors. Medvedev limited the unforced error count in the second set and rolled off 10 of the final 11 games, firing the ball through the court with great power to advance in their first ATP Head2Head meeting.

“Sometimes I am not that intense on court, so today I tried to pump myself up,” Medvedev added. “I had to try and close it out as fast as possible. I had to fight for every point.”

Brooksby defeated Federico Coria, Nikoloz Basilashvili and Roberto Bautista Agut to reach the fourth round. The 21-year-old was aiming to reach the quarter-finals at a Masters 1000 tournament for the first time.