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Top seed Daniil Medvedev beat Marcos Giron in the first round of the Halle Open on Monday, June 19. The match lasted for less than two hours, with Medvedev comfortably prevailing in straight sets (6-4, 6-3).
Medvedev, who is coming off the back of disappointing exits at the French Open and the Libema Open - losing to Thiago Seyboth Wild and Adrian Mannarino in the first and second rounds respectively, will take on Laslo Djere of Serbia in the second round on Wednesday.
The Russian looked in fine nick against Giron and should start as the favourite against Djere as well. Medvedev's head-to-head record against Djere is currently tied at 1-1.
On that note, let us take a look at two things that stood out from Medvedev's win over Giron in the Halle Open.
#1. Daniil Medvedev dominated with his backhand in the first set
Daniil Medvedev, the World No. 3, dominated with his backhand in the first set. There were a lot of crosscourt backhand exchanges between the two, with the Russian having the upper hand in most of them.
His crosscourt backhand won him a lot of points in the first set. Marcos Giron also exhibited enough power in his groundstrokes, but Medvedev was the superior of the two in terms of placement. He also used drop shots at times to drag the American to the net.
Medvedev broke Giron in the fifth game of the first set and then held his serve to lead 4-2. He then maintained his lead for the remainder of the set to win it and draw the first blood.
#2. Marcos Giron's weaker second serve led to his downfall
Marcos Giron hit his first serve really well in the match, but his weaker second serve was exploited by Daniil Medvedev, who kept landing his returns deep to put the American under pressure. Giron used his backhand slice more frequently in the second set to take the pace off the ball.
Medvedev got a break of serve in the seventh game of the second set and then held his serve to lead 5-3. He then broke Giron to love in the subsequent game to win the match, as the American committed a double fault on match point.
Giron won a respectable 79% of the points on his first serve, but could win only 47% of the points on his second delivery. In comparison, Medvedev managed a more consistent 67% and 63% on his first and second serves respectively.
