Daniil Medvedev ‘laid down for five hours, just relaxed’ due to rain delay
Daniil Medvedev was forced to burn the midnight oil at the Miami Open as his match against Quentin Halys only got underway after midnight and finished at 01:30am local time.
The duo were due play the last match on Centre Court on Tuesday, but rain caused havoc with the schedule and the clash was eventually moved to Grandstand only for it to start in the early hours of Wednesday morning in Florida.
Despite the setback, fourth seed Medvedev kept his composure and overcame the Frenchman 6-4, 6-2 in one hour and 10 minutes to reach the quarter-final for a third consecutive year.
Asked after the match how he managed to keep himself busy when it was raining, he replied: “I actually thought it was going to be cancelled. I was just laying down, nothing else to do. Basically, I laid down for five hours, just relaxed.
“I’m really happy that I managed to play not so badly because it’s not easy…When you play at midnight, I mean I usually sleep at midnight, so try to play some tennis there.”
Medvedev broke in game five of the opening set and games one and five of the second set.
The 2021 US Open champion has been on a roll in recent weeks as he is 22-1 since the Australian Open as he won titles in Rotterdam, Qatar and Dubai with Carlos Alcaraz the only player to beat him as the Spaniard defeated him in the Indian Wells Open final last week.
He will take on qualifier Christopher Eubanks for a place in the semi-final after the American broke new ground as he reached his maiden ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final with a 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (7-5) win over Adrian Mannarino from France.
Qualifiers ➡️ QUARTERS@chris_eubanks96 wins a 6th match in 9 days to reach the Elite Eight in Miami – his maiden ATP quarter-final, at a Masters 1000 no less!#MiamiOpen pic.twitter.com/q76ai7f5y4
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) March 29, 2023
“It feels good, it feels good. Just like yesterday felt good, this feels great,” American Eubanks said.
“Just something about all of the delays and the stopping, the starting, the warming up and cooling down and warming up, it makes a match like this even sweeter and to think it was for my first Masters 1000 quarter-final is really, really special. It feels great, it feels good right now.”
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