Lucas Pouille improved to 5-1 at the MercedesCup in Stuttgart on Wednesday as the Frenchman advanced past #NextGenATP German Rudolf Molleker 6-3, 6-4. The second seed hit 10 aces and dropped only five points on his first serve (31/36) in the 49-minute victory.

Pouille became the fifth active Frenchman to crack the Top 10 of the ATP Rankings on 19 March, but the 24-year-old hadn’t reached a quarter-final since the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, where Pouille reached the final on 3 March. He won the 2017 Stuttgart title, beating Spaniard Feliciano Lopez for his first grass-court crown. In the Stuttgart quarter-finals, Pouille will face Ubzekistan’s Denis Istomin. Molleker, 17, celebrated his first tour-level win on Monday.

Read & Watch: Molleker, 17, Celebrates Maiden Tour-Level Win

Germany’s Maximilian Marterer continued his strong run of form, coming from a set down to beat lucky loser Viktor Galovic 3-6, 6-4, 6-1. Marterer saved five of six break points as he notched his 15th tour-level victory of the season after one hour and 34 minutes. The German is competing at a career high No. 50 in the ATP Rankings after reaching the Round of 16 at Roland Garros (l. to Nadal).

The 22-year-old will meet Nick Kyrgios for a quarter-final spot. The Australian has not played a singles match on the ATP World Tour since his quarter-final loss to Ivo Karlovic at the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship in April.

Prajnesh Gunneswaran, competing in just his fourth tour-level match, produced a big upset to defeat #NextGenATP Canadian Denis Shapovalov 7-6(6), 2-6, 6-3. Gunneswaran, ranked No. 169, twice recovered from a break down to take a one-set lead before securing victory, on his fifth match point, after one hour and 49 minutes. The Indian qualifier will face Argentina’s Guido Pella for a spot in the quarter-finals.

Seventh seed Milos Raonic saved two set points in the first set before safely progressing to the second round, beating fellow Stuttgart debutant Mirza Basic 7-6(8), 6-2.

The Canadian fired 15 aces and only lost one point behind his first serve to move past the Diema Xtra Sofia Open champion in 83 minutes. Raonic will meet Banque Eric Sturdza Geneva Open titlist Marton Fucsovics in the second round.

Watch Highlights: Home Favourite Marterer Comes Back

Benoit Paire also progressed to the second round, beating #NextGenATP American Taylor Fritz 6-7(4), 6-3, 6-2. The Frenchman hit 15 aces and converted five of eight break point chances.

Did You Know?
Lucas Pouille is looking to become just the second man in MercedesCup history to successfully defend his title. The only man to ever retain his title in Stuttgart is Austria’s Thomas Muster (1995-1996).

Roger Federer showed some rust but the Swiss legend ultimately settled enough into his first match in nearly three months to advance on Wednesday at the MercedesCup in Stuttgart.

The No. 2 player in the ATP Rankings came back to beat home favourite Mischa Zverev 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 in front of, as customary, a pro-Federer crowd.

“Three months is a long time, it’s longer than the year-end break. So I’m very happy returning on good terms onto the Tour,” Federer said. “It was difficult, missed some chances maybe in the first set… He connected well at the right times.

“And then I found a way, I found my rhythm… I’m very happy with how I played. I’m super happy to be back on Tour. It’s been a great start.”

Federer can reclaim the No. 1 ATP Ranking from long-time rival Rafael Nadal with a run to the championship match in Stuttgart. The 36-year-old lost to Aussie Thanasi Kokkinakis on 24 March during his opening match at the Miami Open presented by Itau before skipping the entire European clay-court swing for the second year in a row.

But the Swiss has long favoured the grass. Seventeen – nine at the Gerry Weber Open in Halle and eight at Wimbledon – of Federer’s 97 tour-level titles have come on the surface, and he’s won 87 per cent (165/189) of his grass-court matches.

Zverev, though, covered the net well and landed enough first serves to take advantage of a slow start from the Swiss. Federer had four break chances during Zverev’s first three service games, but the German erased them all and then broke Federer to love in the eighth game. The German had never won a set against Federer in their five prior FedEx ATP Head2Head meetings, including three on grass, but he clinched the opener with a drop volley.

But Federer cranked it up a level in the second set, twice breaking Zverev to force the decider. Federer began to pick apart the lefty’s serve-and-volley tactics even more in the third set, breaking again the fourth and eighth games.

“It feels good to win again. I’ve lost my last two matches,” said Federer, who lost to Juan Martin del Potro in the Indian Wells final before playing in Miami. “It’s nice to get a fresh start here.”

The top seed had fallen to Tommy Haas in his Stuttgart opener last year. Federer will next meet Argentine Guido Pella or Indian Prajnesh Gunneswaran.

Only three men advanced to the second round on a rain-interrupted Tuesday in Stuttgart, but that didn’t stop an upset from occuring at the MercedesCup.

Denis Istomin snapped a seven-match losing streak at all levels to notch his first win at the event, defeating two-time runner-up Philipp Kohlschreiber 7-6(2), 7-6(3).

The World No. 100 won 77 per cent of service points en route to victory after one hour and 41 minutes in a match that featured no breaks of serve. The 31-year-old improves to 4-2 in his FedEx ATP Head2Head record against the German, who was bidding to record his 16th victory in 30 tour-level matches this season.

Istomin will face another German in the second round after Florian Mayer’s victory over countryman Yannick Maden on Monday.

Banque Eric Sturdza Geneva Open champion Marton Fucsovics also advanced in straight sets, beating American qualifier Denis Kudla 6-3, 6-4. Fucsovics, who broke into the Top 50 of the ATP Rankings for the first time last month, dropped just two points behind his first serve throughout the 68-minute contest and saved all five break points he faced.

The Hungarian will meet No. 7 seed Milos Raonic or Diema Xtra Sofia Open champion Mirza Basic in the second round.

Gilles Simon dropped just three games to cruise past Italy’s Matteo Viola 6-0, 6-3. The Frenchman converted six of eight break point opportunities to reach the second round after 70 minutes.

As a result of the poor weather in Stuttgart, Wednesday’s order of play will provide fans with high-profile entertainment from the first ball to the last. Top seed Roger Federer makes his long-awaited return to the ATP World Tour, while defending champion Lucas Pouille, #NextGenATP Canadian Denis Shapovalov, 2016 Wimbledon finalist Milos Raonic and 2017 Fever-Tree Championships winner Feliciano Lopez are also in action.

Did You Know?
Philipp Kohlschreiber falls to 16-12 at the MercedesCup after his loss to Denis Istomin on Tuesday. The German was making his 13th appearance at the tournament, where he has reached the championship match on two occasions. Kohlschreiber led both finals he played, before falling in three sets to Fabio Fognini in 2013 and Dominic Thiem in 2016.

Daniil Medvedev thought the life of a tennis player was simple. You played, you either won or lost, and then, during practice on court, you worked on what you needed to improve.

The details of his professional life – his diet, his recovery after matches – the 22-year-old Russian didn’t worry about as much.

For instance, if he played at 7 p.m., he might have savoured a couple of panna cottas during lunch and thought nothing of it. Or, for breakfast, Medvedev, who trains in Cannes, France, might have helped himself to a croissant or two.

When it came time to recover after a three-hour match, he acted more like a recreational player then as well. Forget the ice bath; he’d stretch and go to bed.

“I thought it was going to be the best rest, to just lay on the bed and watch some TV. And in fact it’s not,” Medvedev told ATPWorldTour.com.

The 6’6” Russian has learned a lot since he turned professional in 2014. But it wasn’t as if he was always ignoring the advice of his coaches or trainers – although that has happened a little, too. As a player ranked outside the Top 100 of the ATP Rankings, Medvedev didn’t necessarily have the funds to hire staff.

“When you are playing Futures or [ATP] Challengers, you’re kind of scared about your future. So you don’t spend this money,” said Medvedev, who cracked the Top 100 in November 2016.

But these are different times for the Russian, who reached the inaugural Next Gen ATP Finals last year in Milan, where eight of the world’s best 21-and-under players competed. He’s an ATP World Tour titlist (Sydney 2018), ranked just outside the Top 50, and he’s beaten some of the best players in tennis. Last year at Wimbledon, the Russian earned his maiden Grand Slam win against three-time Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka.

Read & Watch: Medvedev Stuns Stan at SW19

What’s changed? Medvedev is taking his tennis more seriously. Fewer croissants, more porridge. “This year I try to work a lot on myself, physically, on all these small aspects… just everything together,” Medvedev said.

Gilles Cervara, Medvedev’s coach since May 2014, remembers trying to prepare his player for a match last year. The Russian was practising footwork drills, but he was holding back.

“Dani, you are 100 per cent?” Cervara remembers asking.

“Yeah, I’m 100 per cent,” Medvedev said.

“OK, we don’t do it. Because if this is 100 per cent, it’s useless. So I prefer that you don’t do it,” Cervara said.

Medvedev picked up his level, for the moment. But that’s how it was for the coach: He was the one poking and prodding.

“It was tough for me to push him,” Cervara told ATPWorldTour.com. “He didn’t care about things. He didn’t care what he put into his body… Also he didn’t know so well.”

In October, at the Rolex Shanghai Masters, the two had a serious discussion about Medvedev’s fitness, and at the end of last year, Medvedev started working with physiologist Yann Le Meur, who has worked with French Olympic teams and works with the AS Monaco Football Club.

Twice a day now, the Russian fills out a report on his phone about how he’s feeling. The entire team can review the journals and decide what’s best for Medvedev in that moment.

Cervara had been wanting to have that discussion earlier, but he waited to bring it up until he felt Medvedev had arrived at a similar thought.

“We knew it for a long time. But we need to do it step by step. At the moment, Daniil was ready to hear that he needs to improve stuff like this,” Cervara said.

Only a few months later, the work translated to on-court success. In January, the Milan semi-finalist won seven consecutive matches, qualifying and winning his first ATP World Tour title at the Sydney International.

“He got a lot confidence from winning this title, just after the pre-season preparation… It shows that it worked straight away. It puts you in the right direction, a better mood,” Cervara said. “But also for him I imagine that to win the first title it’s like, ‘OK, if I did this, I can do it again, I can beat top players’.”

Read More: Q&A: Get To Know Medvedev

The best surface for Medvedev’s flat groundstrokes, though, might be grass, where he’s won 67 per cent of his matches (10/15), according to his FedEx ATP Win/Loss Record. On Monday, he snapped a five-match losing streak at the Libema Open in ’s-Hertogenbosch against Indian Yuki Bhambri.

Last year on grass, Medvedev made the quarter-finals in ’s-Hertogenbosch and at the Fever-Tree Championships in London. He also reached the semi-finals at the Nature Valley International in Eastbourne, before upsetting Wawrinka at The Championships.

“I just want to be as consistent as possible in my game,” Medvedev said. “The way it started, to win Sydney, my first ATP title is actually amazing because I played very good tennis. Also, the very important thing for me is, even when I lose matches to feel like I gave my all, just the opponent was better this match and I couldn’t really do anything.”