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Daniil Medvedev marked a significant milestone on Wednesday at the 2022 Los Cabos Open. The 26-year-old recorded the 250th singles win of his career, beating Rinki Hijtaka 6-4, 6-3 in straight sets to move into the quarterfinals.
The world's top-ranked player, coming off a quarterfinal appearance on the grasscourts of Mallorca, made short work of his Australian opponent. Playing his first hardcourt match in almost four months, Medvedev romped into the last eight in 92 minutes to book a clash with Ricardas Berankis.
Medvedev is now 250-109 in his career, as he became the seventh player born in 1990 or later to arrive at the milestone. The other six players to have achieved this feat are: Milos Raonic, Grigor Dimitrov, Alexander Zverev, Dominic Thiem, David Goffin and Pablo Carreno Busta.
The Russian was understandably thrilled to learn of his milestone, saying in his on-court interview:
"Somebody told me this a few days ago at media day, otherwise I would not have known. That's probably a milestone in a a way. For sure I want more victories, but that's also nice to have 250. We'll try to get more."
Making his debut in Los Cabos, Medvedev broke his opponent at 5-4 to pocket the opener. The top seed engineered another break of Hijtaka's serve midway through the second set to romp across the finish line.
As for his performance on the night, the Russian admitted that he was a little rusty due to not having played in a while and hoped to do better as the tournament progresses.
"It's definitely not that easy to play after you stop for a while, especially (playing my) first match on hard courts since a long long time, since Miami. Sensations were not bad. I could have just broke a little bit more, but when you win everything is fine. I have to play like this in the next matches."
Daniil Medvedev's 2022 season so far
After opening his campaign with a third-set tiebreak loss to Ugo Humbert in the ATP Cup, Daniil Medvedev reeled off ten straight wins to stand on the cusp of history.
Leading Rafael Nadal by two sets and a break in the Australian Open final, Medvedev was a few service holds away from becoming the first male player in the Open Era to win his first two Majors in back-to-back Slams. However, Nadal produced a stunning turnaround to become the first male player to win 21 Majors.
Medvedev, though, created history in Acapulco, as he became the third Russian player to become World No. 1 following Novak Djokovic's loss in the Dubai quarterfinals.
The Russian then made the second week at Roland Garros, falling to Marin Cilic in the fourth round before making back-to-back finals on grass. However, he lost to Dutch wildcard Tim van Rijthoven at the S'-Hertogenbosch Open and to Hubert Hurkacz in the Halle title match. With his triumph over Rijtaka, Medvedev is now three wins away from winning his first title of the year.
