● Former World No. 1 will next face Dimitrov
It took two days and plenty of stops and starts, but Daniil Medvedev finally finished off Jan-Lennard Struff on Thursday at Wimbledon.
The fifth seed battled past the big-hitting German 6-1, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(3) in two hours and 17 minutes to reach the fourth round at The Championships for his third consecutive appearance.
He will play 10th seed Grigor Dimitrov for a place in the quarter-finals.
Medvedev, a semi-finalist at SW19 one year ago, has been tested in two straight rounds after being pushed to a fourth-set tie-break by Alexandre Muller.
But the former No. 1 player in the PIF ATP Rankings is safely through to the second week.
On Friday, Medvedev moved to within a set of victory. Play was suspended at 1-1 in the fourth set.
It was not a simple resumption on Saturday, though. Rain interrupted play again at the All England Club, and Struff put himself in position to force a decider when he took a 3/1 lead in the fourth-set tie-break.
But 20-time tour-level titlist Medvedev buckled down from there and hit a perfect backhand passing shot up the line to triumph on No. 2 Court.
Medvedev leads his next opponent, Dimitrov, 7-3 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series.
Their most recent clash came earlier this year at Indian Wells, where Medvedev triumphed 6-4, 6-4.
Stay ahead with the latest updates! Join The ConclaveNG on WhatsApp and Telegram for real-time news alerts, breaking stories, and exclusive content delivered straight to your phone. Don’t miss a headline — subscribe now!
