Daniil Medvedev proved a wall hard to break down for
Laslo Djere of Serbia as the Russian eased into the 3rd round of
Roland Garros with a 6-3 6-4 6-3 win.
Djere opened the match with a clear intention of attacking Medvedev which is the right call on clay. It worked as he jumped out to an early 2-0 lead but gave it right back. The consequence of being aggressive is the probability that you will commit a lot of errors. He certainly did when the lead turned into a 2-4 deficit. Djere had break points in every Medvedev service game in the opening set but he still lost it 3-6.
Medvedev played a very smart style opting to allow Djere to dictate as he noticed the Serbian missing a lot. We did not see too much aggression from Medvedev but it still proved enough in this match. The 2nd set opened with a trading of breaks to start it and Medvedev breaking late to get the 6-4 win. The final set once again opened with another early trading of breaks.
Djere was still attacking but he was unable to hit a couple of winners in a row when he needed to. Easy missed forehands, bad volleys, just very poor play when it mattered the most plagued the Serbian in this match. If he was a bit sharper he would have won the opening set and who knows what would happened after that.
Medvedev got another break at 1-1 in the final set after Djere failed to close out a game that featured 11 deuces. The Russian held on to his serve for the rest of the set and added another break to finish it out 6-3 against Djere who seemed quite tired towards the end of the match.