LONDON (Reuters) – Daniil Medvedev advanced to the third round at Wimbledon with a 6-3 6-3 7-6(5) win over Frenchman Adrian Mannarino on Friday after their match was suspended due to bad light the previous day.
Third seed Medvedev was on the brink of victory on Thursday evening before Mannarino staged a late fightback to level the third set at 4-4 and take the match into a second day.
The world number 35 continued to keep pace with the Russian, who has never advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Club.
Medvedev clinched the tiebreak when the left-handed Mannarino sent a forehand long and the Russian will next play American Marcos Giron or Hungarian Marton Fucsovics.
Medvedev, who has not dropped a set at the tournament, said he may have a new lucky ritual to go through if he has to play a match over two days again.
“I remember a couple of years ago I had this against (Hubert) Hurkacz and I lost and I kind of prepared in a way for a new match. I did an ice bath, I finished the match as if it was a normal match and the next day I had to play again,” he said in an on-court interview.
“And this didn’t work out for me, so I changed it. I didn’t do anything as if the match was finished, I didn’t wash my hair, I was like ‘I’ll wash it after the match’ and it worked so I’m going to continue like this if next time I have a two-day match.
“I did take a shower,” he added.
(Reporting by Christian Radnedge,; Editing by Ed Osmond)
