Medvedev has a scare but advances to the second round of the Australian Open

Daniil Medvedev makes his Australian Open 2025 debut.

For his first tournament of the season and just a few days after the birth of his second child, the Russian, ranked 5th in the world, starts the first Grand Slam of the season in Melbourne, where he has already reached the final three times in his career (2021, 2022 and 2024).

Facing 23-year-old Thai wild card Kasidit Samrej, Medvedev seemed to have a draw more than he could handle to start his year, but he suffered a major scare when he found himself down 2 sets to 1.

Finally, after 3h07 of play, the winner of the US Open 2021 had the last word, based on experience (6-2, 4-6, 3-6, 6-1, 6-2).

On court after his success, the Russian quipped about the length of the match: "I know I play better tennis when the match lasts longer.

I said to myself: 'Why play for 1h30? I need to play for at least 3 hours. I watched his matches, and I hadn't seen him play at that level, so it surprised me a bit, but if he keeps playing like that, his life could be good.

I hope he can play all his games like that," he said.

In his next round, Medvedev will face Learner Tien.

The American, a finalist at the Next Gen ATP Finals at the end of December, eliminated Camilo Ugo Carabelli (4-6, 7-6, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 in almost 4 hours of play).