Daniil Medvedev begins title defence by smashing Kozlov

Daniil Medvedev took a few games to fully find his form but once he did it was mostly cruise control against native Stefan Kozlov 6-2 6-4 6-0.

It was an interesting matchup between the players as both of them play quite similarly in the sense that they prefer longer rallies and waiting for their opponents to take initiative. We saw a couple of long rallies but most of those were won by Medvedev.

After taking a few games to find his rhythm, Medvedev smashed Kozlov in the first set 6-2. In the 2nd set Kozlov actually put up a really good fight. He squandered an early break point and lost his serve a bit later but was able to get it back immediately and make it 4-4.

He took a MTO in the 2nd set but continued to play as Medvedev took the set 6-4. The final set was an utter beating once more as Medvedev served a bagel to Kozlov who was not able to keep up both physically and tennis-wise. A good and comfortable start for Medvedev who blasted over 30 winners in this one.