Within hours, the men’s chart lost world number 2 and world number 4. After the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, the seeded number 3 of the tournament and finalist in 2021, it is the Russian under neutral banner Daniil Medvedev who fell this Monday evening during the night session.
And there was not even a photo: the former and ephemeral world number 1 at the end of last winter and who could become so again during Wimbledon was bitten, swallowed, devoured by the Croatian Marin Cilic. The world number 20 ate alive a Medvedev who had not yet lost a set until then. In one evening, he lost three at once and not pretending.
Former US Open winner
Quickly overwhelmed in the first set which he lost 6-2, Medvedev then never managed to get his head above water. Cilic on the contrary pushed it a little more, dominating the second set 6-3. Imperial on all his shots, the Croatian has never ceased to drive the point home, again and again. Medvedev couldn’t do anything. He again lost the third and final set 6-2.
The Croatian won in less than two hours, quickly, well done. “It was fantastic from the first point to the last. It’s one of the best matches of my career, ”said the Croatian former winner of the US Open on his cloud.
This defeat has a major consequence on the rest of the tournament. With Medvedev, Roland-Garros obviously loses one of its contenders for the final victory. Above all, the lower part of the men’s draw lost its two main favorites in a single day (a godsend for the survivors Cilic-Rublev-Ruud-Rune). This clears the way for the upper part in which the giants of the fortnight are located: Djokovic, Nadal, Zverev and Alcaraz.
The player in this part of the table who will go to the final will have a good chance of winning the 2022 edition of the French internationals. This Tuesday, the tournament will still do damage. With Djokovic – Nadal, Roland-Garros will lose either number 1 or number 5 in the world. With the other quarter-final Alexander Zverev – Carlos Alcaraz, it’s either the number 3 or the world number 6 who will fall by the wayside.