Medvedev Advances to French Open Third Round After Miomir Retires

World No. 5 Daniil Medvedev advanced to the third round of the ongoing French Open 2024 after his opponent, Miomir Kecmanovic, was forced to retire in the second set on Thursday. Medvedev led Kecmanovic 6-1, 5-0 when play was stopped on Court Suzanne Lenglen after a 55-minute match.

The fifth seed performed flawlessly throughout the match, making only six unforced errors. The 28-year-old dominated baseline rallies and gradually wore down Kecmanovic with his precise shots and depth. With this win, Medvedev’s record in their ATP Head2Head series improved to 4-0.

Medvedev’s next opponent will be either Argentine Mariano Navone or Czech Tomas Machac. The World No. 5 is aiming for his second major title. With an 8-3 record on clay this year and a 9-7 record at Roland Garros, Medvedev’s best performance came during a quarterfinal run at the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Madrid.

In other second-round action, Grigor Dimitrov stormed past Hungarian Fabian Marozsan 6-0, 6-3, 6-4 in a match that lasted one hour and 40 minutes. With 34 winners and 19 unforced errors, the 10th seed won 89 percent (34/38) of his first-serve points and demonstrated strong baseline play to advance to the third round in Paris for the eighth time. Dimitrov will next face either German Maximilian Marterer or Belgian Zizou Bergs.

Elsewhere, Italian Matteo Arnaldi secured his place in the third round in Paris for the first time by defeating Alexandre Muller 6-4, 6-1, 6-3. The 23-year-old will next take on sixth seed Andrey Rublev.

American Sebastian Korda overcame Soonwoo Kwon 6-4, 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 and set up a third-round clash against third seed Carlos Alcaraz.