Daniil Medvedev has shaken off a mid-match ankle harm to achieve the Indian Wells Masters quarter-finals with a gutsy 6-7 (5-7) 7-6 (7-5) 7-5 victory over Germany’s Alexander Zverev, extending his successful streak to 17 matches.
It was a formidable effort from the fifth-seeded Russian whose event appeared over when he crashed to the court docket within the second set on Tuesday with what initially seemed to be a critical ankle harm.
Medvedev was capable of proceed and advance to the final eight on the occasion in southern California for the primary time.
“Now when the adrenaline goes down the body cools down it is going to be pretty painful and I am going to probably do a scan to see what it is and if I can continue to play,” mentioned Medvedev, winner of three straight tournaments in Rotterdam, Doha and Dubai.
Down a set and on serve at 3-2 within the second set, Medvedev turned over his ankle making an attempt to make a return and winced in ache because the trainers, twelfth seed Zverev and the event supervisor all rushed to his facet as he clutched his proper leg.
Once again in his chair, Medvedev had the ankle closely taped after which returned to the court docket hobbling however determinedly forcing the second set to a different tiebreak.
This time the 27-year-old Russian prevailed 7-5 to ship the competition to a 3rd set.
“When I twisted it I thought I am going to stand up just fine and then the pain started growing very fast and I thought, ‘oh that’s not a good sign,” Medvedev mentioned.
“I felt like I didn’t break it but I thought maybe one of the ligaments is a little injured so I thought I wasn’t going to be able to play.
“That is without doubt one of the first instances in my life the place the physio taped my ankle so I made a decision to offer it a try to what was very shocking (was that) it was a lot simpler to run than to stroll.”
Medvedev’s three-hour 15-minute win units up a conflict with Alejandro Davidovich Fokina after the Spaniard scored a 6-3 6-3 win over Chile’s Cristian Garin.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
