Daniil Medvedev begins Mallorca title defence with comeback win over Karatsev

It was a Russian duel in Mallorca between Daniil Medvedev and Aslan Karatsev and the defending champion moved on after a comeback win 4-6 6-3 6-2.

It was a fairly quick-paced match with a lot of short points as neither was interesting in playing long rallies. Karatsev was a bit more sturdy to open the match taking a 3-2 lead at the start of the match. He saved a couple of break points to make it 4-2 and those two games defined the opening set. The Russian was able to cruise to a 6-4 finish behind fairly strong baseline play.

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Neither played served that well as there was quite a bit of wind but Karatsev was simply better in the key rallies. Medvedev upped his game in the 2nd set not wanting to crash out early from this event and it paid off towards the end of the second set then Medvedev took it 6-3. In the final set Medvedev jumped out to an early lead and he looked quite sharp.

Karatsev lost quite a bit of momentum and the better-ranked Russian cruised to a 6-2 finish. It was a superb comeback for Medvedev who started the match a bit too loose but became more serious as the match went on.