DUBAI — Top seed Daniil Medvedev had little time to react to Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard’s powerful serves at the Dubai Tennis Championships.
Meanwhile, Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova has withdrawn from next month’s Indian Wells and Miami tournaments due to a back injury that has sidelined her since November.
Medvedev, ranked No. 6, still reached the quarter-finals after a 6-4, 6-4 victory over the 21-year-old Frenchman.
The Russian player was asked about facing serves exceeding 230 kph (143 mph).
“You don’t have any time so it’s pure reflexes and sometimes it makes life even easier because as I say, you don’t think much,” Medvedev said in his on-court interview.
“If you don’t return it, you’re not even disappointed. There were some second serves that I missed, and I was disappointed. You just try to do your best, and I managed pretty well,” Medvedev added according to AP.
Medvedev, the Dubai champion in 2023, broke Mpetshi Perricard´s serve once in each set.
The Frenchman committed twice as many unforced errors – 44 – as winners and didn’t create any break point opportunities.
Marin Cilic, the 2014 US Open champion who eliminated second-seeded Alex de Minaur in the first round, moved into the quarter-finals by beating Alexei Popyrin 5-7, 6-3, 6-4.
Krejcikova has withdrawn from next month’s Indian Wells and Miami tournaments due to a back injury that has sidelined her since November.
The world number 16, a surprise champion at the All England Club last year, sustained the injury during the Tour’s Asian swing of tournaments and appeared hampered by it at the WTA Finals in Riyadh, where she reached the semi-finals.
The 29-year-old Czech skipped the Australian Open in January, saying she needed more time for her injury to heal.
Australia’s Kimberly Birrell delivered in two tiebreakers, beating defending champion Yuan Yue of China 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5) in the first round of the ATX Open in Austin, Texas.
Each player broke serve twice in the first set and three times in the second before Birrell closed each set on her first opportunity. Yuan, the fourth seed, put just 58 percent of her first serves in play.
The other two seeded players in action also dropped their opening match. Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic squeezed past the seventh-seeded Katie Volynets of the United States 7-6 (3), 7-5, and Russia’s Anna Blinkova overtook sixth-seeded Moyuka Uchijima of Japan 4-6, 6-4, 6-0.
Spain’s Nuria Parrizas Diaz defeated former University of Texas star, Malaika Rapolu, making her WTA Tour debut for the United State, 6-2, 6-4.
