Daniil Medvedev is one win away from returning to No. 1. And Naomi Osaka is two wins away from being a tournament champion again.
Shaking off a slow start, the top-seeded Medve-dev reached the quarterfinals of the Miami Open on Wednesday by defeating Jenson Brooksby of the U.S. 7-5, 6-1. Medvedev has yet to drop a set in his three Mi-ami matches.
He’ll face No. 8 seed and defending Miami champion Hubert Hurkacz in the quarters — and if Medvedev prevails there, he’ll be assured of supplanting Novak Djokovic and returning to No. 1 in the world. “I’m not the kind of guy who’s going to say, ‘Yeah, I’m the best,’” Medvedev said. The computer might say it for him soon enough.
The Russian held the No. 1 ranking briefly, lost it to Djokovic again about a week ago and is now closing in on capturing it again.Brooksby jumped out to an immediate lead, breaking Medvedev’s first service game and wound up serving for the first set — two points away at 5-4, 30-15.
It was all Medvedev from there. Medvedev won 11 of the remaining 13 points in the set, breaking Brooksby to tie it up, holding at love for 6-5 and then breaking again to finish off the 7-5 win.—APP
