WATCH: Daniil Medvedev saves match points, hushes crowd during ‘crazy match’ against Alexander Zverev

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Daniil Medvedev antics

Daniil Medvedev was at his pantomime villain best during his incredible win over Alexander Zverev in the third round of the Monte Carlo Masters.

The mercurial Medvedev was always behind the eight ball as he lost the opening set and Zverev came out to serve for the match in both the second and third sets, but the Russian somehow prevailed to win 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (9-7) in a three-hour contest that finished late on Thursday evening.

After being broken in the third game of the opening set, Zverev went up a gear as he broke twice to race into a 5-2 lead before serving out the set.

Both players struggled on serve early in the second set as they shared four breaks before Zverev broke again in game nine and came out to serve for the match. However, Medvedev was not to be denied as he got the break back and then claimed a fourth break of the set to take the match to a decider.

He didn’t have the crowd on his side as they started booing, but in typical Medvedev fashion he was not bothered by their reaction.

The third set went according to serve until the ninth game when the German broke and he then once again came out to serve for the match. This time Medvedev broke to love and it went to the tie-breaker.

Zverev then had a match point at 5-6 in the tie-breaker, but Medvedev held firm. Another chance came and went at 6-7 before the Russian finally had a match point of his own at 8-7 and he made no mistake.

“That was a crazy match, said Medvedev. “He served two times for the match, he probably should have done better, but that is also clay courts.

“I tried to watch a lot of tennis before playing this tournament, and one thing that I saw is you can come back at any moment. The serve doesn’t count as much, so as soon as someone gets a little bit tight, the match can turn around in one second. That’s what I managed to do.”

Up next is Holger Rune in what will be their first-ever ATP clash as the sixth seed advanced after Matteo Berrettini was forced to withdrew due to injury.

“He’s an amazing player,” Medvedev said of the Norwegian. “We practised many times. The first time at the Nitto ATP Finals when he was still a junior. Then a lot of times at the Mouratoglou Academy. We practised a lot on clay. I don’t think I ever won a set, but I was playing good today, so I hope to show this good tennis tomorrow.”

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