Not just Turin
That defeat ended China’s strong swing. Medvedev won the title in Hangzhou, reached the semi-finals in Beijing and had won 11 of 12 matches in China this year before meeting Djodar. He has three titles this season and leads the ATP Tour in hard-court wins.
Medvedev won the title last year, defeating Corentin Moute 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 in the final. The top seed opens his defense against 109th-ranked Sho Shimabukuro of Japan, who bounced back to beat Roman Safiulini 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-4 on Tuesday.
He said that the decision to come to Almaty was not only about Turin, and it was not difficult.
If I decided to skip Almaty, it would be absolutely pointless.
“First of all, I was with my wife and children in Shanghai, we were here together last year, so we decided to come back because it is a nice place for children,” said Medvedev. “If I decided to miss Almaty, it would make absolutely no sense to miss only Almaty, I would have to miss Vienna as well, because if you only miss Almaty, you go back home for three days and it gives you absolutely nothing at the end of the season.”
“I also like this tournament here and I have commitments with it, so all in all it was an easy decision to come here. Sure, I’m a little tired, but it’s not the first time in my career that I’ve been tired, so I’m just going to try.”
The hat that the tournament gave him last year never landed on his head. “I didn’t wear it,” she said. “But I have a wardrobe at home where I have all kinds of cool memorabilia from all over the world, because they’re all good memories, so it’s probably in this wardrobe.”