PETE ZIEBRON
Earlier this year, I attended one day of matches at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. The marquee match was the return of Serena Williams, who defeated Zarina Diyas 7-5 6-3 to open the Thursday night session. However, two men's matches involving a pair of 21 year-old Russians intrigued me significantly more.
During the day session, Daniil Medvedev, then ranked #57 defeated American Steve Johnson 7-6(0) 6-4 to advance to the second round. The match was featured on Center Court and the Russian provided just a glimpse of the electrifying tennis that he would produce much later in 2018. In January, as a qualifier, Medvedev won the ATP 250 event in Sydney. However, during the spring months, he would suffer a five match losing streak. However, Medvedev would defeat Johnson once again in August, this time in the Winston-Salem final. In October, he would beat Kei Nishikori to win the ATP 500 in Tokyo. Medvedev ended 2018 with three titles and ranked 16 in the world.
Well after 11 PM at Indian Wells, Stadium 2 featured two more Russians doing battle in the 3rd set, this time world #41 Karen Khachanov against #76 Evgeny Donskoy. Khachanov served for the match but was broken and Donskoy would eventually prevail in a breaker 6-3 1-6 7-6(4). Khachanov, who won the 250 in Marseille in February, would also win the Paris Masters 1000 in October, defeating Novak Djokovic 7-5 6-4 in the final. The lanky Russian defeated four consecutive top ten players and finished 2018 as world #11.
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