By: Aaron Xiong
In the world of sports, it can be anyone’s day. The famous quote, “You win some, you lose some” couldn’t be more apparent in the sport of tennis. One point can sway the momentum of the match towards another’s favor. Not even the top players are invincible and that was apparent at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament (Rotterdam Open).
World number 3 and top seed at this year’s Rotterdam Open, Daniil Medvedev, loss in the opening round of the tournament to Serbian Dusan Lajovic in straight sets [7-6(7-4), 6-4]. The Russian is coming off a deep run at the Australian Open where he reached the final and loss to Novak Djokovic. Medvedev also attained a personal high ranking of world number 3 following the Australian Open.
In what he had hoped to be a successful tournament, Medvedev found himself over powered by Lajovic who hit 15 winners and improves his record to 2-1 against Medvedev. Had Medvedev reached the final of the Rotterdam Open, he would’ve reached the world number 2 spot in the FedEx ATP Rankings.
Another surprising loss at this year’s Rotterdam Open was by world number 7 and third seed Alexander Zverev. Similar to Daniil Medvedev, Zverev was also coming off a decent run at the Australian Open after making the quarter-finals before losing to eventual champion, Novak Djokovic.
The towering German was also looking to make a deep run as the third seed but ran into Kazakhstan’s Alexander Bublik. Bublik, who has stated in the past that he doesn’t find tennis entertaining and is only playing for the prize money, put on a show against the world number 7 in their first round matchup. Bublik served up 5 aces to Zverev’s one, while also keeping his first serve percentage at a stunning 85% to win the match in [7-5, 6-3].
In what has been a mind boggling first round at the Rotterdam Open, all eyes turn to world number 6 and second seed, Stefanos Tsitsipas as the favorite with Daniil Medvedev and Zverev out.. Tsitsipas pulled out a narrow victory over Bulgaria’s Egor Gerasimov in straight sets. Tsitsipas will face Hubert Hurkacz from Poland in the second round with his eyes set on that trophy.
