Russia’s tennis star Daniil Medvedev was knocked out by his compatriot Aslan Karatsev on Wednesday in Round 2 of the 2021 ATP (the Association of Tennis Professionals) Italian Open tournament.
Karatsev, 27, took out tournament’s 3rd-seed Medvedev in 1 hour and 18 minutes with the straight sets win of 6-2; 6-4, TASS reported.
Russian tennis player Karatsev is currently ranked by the ATP as World No. 27 and playing earlier in the year at the 2021 Australian Open he made a sensation by reaching the semifinals in his debut Grand Slam tournaments’ appearance.
Karatsev became the first man in the Open Era (since 1968) to reach the semifinals of the debut Grand Slam tournament in the status of the qualifier. Before making his historic semifinals debut at the Grand Slam tournament, Karatsev had only three ATP-level victories since 2015.
His opponent today, Daniil Medvedev, is rated as World No. 2 in the ATP Rankings List and he is the winner of 10 ATP tournaments. He also played twice in the finals of the Grand Slam tournaments, namely at the 2019 US Open and the 2021 Australian Open.
Earlier this month, Russia’s 25-year-old Medvedev lost to Cristian Garin of Chile in Round 3 of the 2021 ATP Madrid Open tennis tournament in Spain. It was the first ATP tournament for Medvedev after he had recovered from the novel coronavirus, which forced him earlier to skip the 2021 ATP Masters tennis tournament in Monte Carlo on April 11-18.
The 2021 ATP Italian Open tournament is played on outdoor clay courts at Foro Italico in Rome and has some 2 million euro ($2.4 million) in prize money.
