TOP seed at the 2021 ATP 1000 Miami Open, Daniil Medvedev has survived an almighty scare from the red-hot Alexei Popyrin to advance through to the fourth round at the event. The Russian skipped away to a break early in the first set, but was forced to do it the hard way in a tiebreaker. It was symbolic of the entire match, with Medvedev needing two tiebreakers and an equally tight third set to eventually post a win.

The match lasted two hours and 37 minutes, with Medvedev winning the first set tiebreaker 7-3, before Popyrin stepped up in the clutch moments in the second set 9-7 to level the match at a tiebreaker apiece. Heading into the deciding set, a crucial break for Medvedev – only his second of the match – helped him get home, 7-6 6-7 6-4. Popyrin took it up to the Russian with 73 per cent of his first serve points going his way, and breaking the top seed despite Medvedev only losing four points off is first serve. In the end, the recently crowned world number two just finished it off a little cleaner.

“It’s probably one of the sweetest victories in my career, because I was cramping like hell in the third set,” Medvedev said post-match. “It’s one thing when you’re cramping when you’re [ahead in the score], but I started cramping before. It was tough to think about the win in these conditions.

“At the same time, I should have won in two sets and we would not be talking about cramping. But anyway, we have the result on the board and I’m happy that I managed to go through all the difficulties of this definitely crazy match.”

Seventh seed Roberto Bautista Agut also had to fight his way to a three-set win, shaking off 31st seed German Jan-Lennard Struff. Bautista Agut won 4-6 6-3 6-2 in a come-from-behind victory, much like 21st seed Italian Jannik Sinner. The teen sensation came from a set down against 14th seed Russian Karen Khachanov to hold on in a dominant second set tiebreaker, and build the momentum from there in a 4-6 7-6 6-4 victory. Similarly, 22nd seed Taylor Fritz had to win in three sets, defeating unseeded Brit Cameron Norrie, 6-4 3-6 6-1.

It must have been the day of tight results, with the only match between two unseeded players also going the full distance, as Finnish up-and-comer Emil Ruusuvuori defeated his Swedish counterpart Mikael Ymer. Ruusuvuori won 4-6 6-1 7-5 in another come-from-behind win, and whilst the other completed match at the time of publishing – John Isner‘s defeat of Felix Auger-Aliassime – was not three sets, it involved two tiebreakers of 7-5, for a 7-6 7-6 victory in favour of the big-serving American.

The two matches just starting at the time of publishing were 16th seed Dusan Lajovic up against unseeded American Frances Tiafoe, and Australian James Duckworth going head-to-head with 32nd seed Alexander Bublik.

ATP MIAMI OPEN 1000 ROUND OF 32 RESULTS:

[1] Daniil Medvedev (RUS) defeated Alexei Popyrin (AUS) 7-6 6-7 6-4
[7] Roberto Bautista Agut (ESP) defeated [31] Jan-Lennard Struff (GER) 4-6 6-3 6-2
[18] John Isner (USA) defeated [11] Felix Auger-Aliassime (CAN) 7-6 7-6
[21] Jannik Sinner (ITA) defeated [14] Karen Khachanov (RUS) 4-6 7-6 6-4
[16] Dusan Lajovic (SRB) vs. Frances Tiafoe (USA)
[22] Taylor Fritz (USA) defeated Cameron Norrie (GBR) 6-4 3-6 6-1
[32] Alexander Bublik (KAZ) vs. James Duckworth (AUS)
Emil Ruusuvuori (FIN) defeated Mikael Ymer (SWE) 4-6 6-1 7-5

Photo credit: Mike Lawrence/ATP Tour