Daniil Medvedev Passes Grigor Dimitrov test to reach quarter finals in Vienna

Daniil Medvedev improved on an impressive opening round victory over Arthur Fils and beat Grigor Dimitrov to reach the quarter finals at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna on Thursday.

The 27-year-old Russian who is playing in Vienna being the top seed and also chasing his title defence after claiming the title in 2022, defeated Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 in front of huge a crowd at the Wiener Stadthalle.

Despite losing the first set, the 2021 Us Open champion and top seed in Austria defeated his opponent to extend his head to head meeting to 6-2 against Grigor Dimitrov.

“It was a great match,” said Medvedev in his on-court interview. “He started really well and I was missing just a little bit too much. He was ahead and starting from the second set I started to play better, to run better, to put more balls in the court and play faster when I needed to.

“I managed to have small control of the match, but it was very tough and could have gone either way. I’m very happy I managed to do it.”

The World No. 3 who now leads Grigor Dimitrov 3-0 in indoor, will lock horns with eighth seed Karen Khachanov for a place in the semi-finals on Friday.

Thursday’s victory was also a Tour-leading 45th hard-court win for Medvedev, who has already secured his spot for the season-ending ATP Finals in Turin.

Elsewhere, Andrey Rublev secured his spot at the year-end ATP Finals after entering the quarter-final on Thursday in Vienna by beating Matteo Arnaldi 7-5, 6-3.

The 26-year-old who is fifth in the race for Turin also secured his second top 10 win of the year and will now face fifth seed Alexander Zverev in the quarter-finals.