Daniil Medvedev is one win away from regaining the world No.1 spot from Novak Djokovic after defeating Jenson Brooksby to move into the Miami Open quarter-finals.
The Russian hit back from a break down in the opening set to claim a 7-5 6-1 success and is on the verge of replacing Djokovic at the summit of the men’s game once more.
Medvedev will meet defending champion Hubert Hurkacz or Lloyd Harris in the last eight where he will look to advance beyond that round of the tournament for the first time.
Speaking in the immediate aftermath of his triumph, Medvedev said: “Jenson has the potential to be a top player. When you say top, you never know if it’s No.1, No.3 or No.10 but he’s a really good player, who is playing better than his ranking. That’s tough because he’s going to get players like me, [Alexander] Zverev and Novak in rounds like the quarter-finals. He needs to beat us sometimes to climb the rankings.
“I knew it wouldn’t be an easy match, especially on this surface. For me I don’t think it suits my game perfectly, especially against the type of player like Jenson.
“It wasn’t easy at the beginning. I didn’t have any solutions but just had to keep playing and the crucial moment came when he didn’t convert for a double break. I managed to make him serve for the set. That’s not easy. He got a bit tight and I managed to play better and he started going down in level.
“I feel I am low in intensity a lot of the time to try and keep my energy. Today it wasn’t enough in the beginning, so I tried to pump myself up and he started going down in energy. After that I thought I had to try to close it out as fast as possible.”
The Russian made a slow start with Brooksby snaring an early break to suggest the unorthodox American could spring a surprise.
Medvedev slowly worked his way back into the set and broke back as his opponent served for the opener at 5-4. So often the top players find clutch mode when it matters and a run of four games in a row saw the top seed snatch it 7-5 after 51 minutes.
The purple patch continued into the second set as Brooksby had no answer to the additional gears the US Open champion found.
Medvedev ended up taking 10 of the last 11 games to turn a tricky situation into a comfortable victory after just one hour and 18 minutes on court.
Elsewhere, Alexander Zverev picked up a 6-4 6-4 win over Thanasi Kokkinakis to set up a last eight meeting with Casper Ruud.
Kokkinakis had been aiming to reach the quarter-finals at an ATP Masters 1000 event for the first time but the world No.97 came up short in the forehand exchanges and eventually succumbed in one and 32 minutes.
“I wanted to shorten the points as it was quite hot,” Zverev said in his on-court interview. “Thanasi is a very aggressive player so I tried to take that away from him. I was returning the second serve quite well. I kept putting pressure on him and kept being aggressive and it worked out well.”
The German will return to world No.3 – edging past the injured Rafael Nadal – as a result of the victory as he looks to put a tough start to 2022 behind him.
Ruud beat British No.1 Cameron Norrie in straight sets.
Asked about his next opponent, Zverev added: “Casper is a great player and playing incredibly well right now, so I am ready for a tough battle.”
