Russian second-seed Daniil Medvedev stayed solid from the baseline against Frenchman Richard Gasquet to advance to the second round of the US Open with a 6-4 6-3 6-1 victory.

It was the 200th career win for the 25-year-old and his 160th on hard courts and the Russian showed why he is one of the top contenders for the title with a clinical display at Arthur Ashe Stadium in the final match of the opening day on Monday.

The 2019 US Open finalist, who also reached the final of the Australian Open at the start of the year, broke Gasquet once in each of the first two sets before the veteran Frenchman seemed to start struggling physically.

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Gasquet, 10 years older than his opponent, started to move gingerly in the third set in the hot and humid conditions at Flushing Meadows as Medvedev broke him three times to close out the match in under two hours.

“I saw a lot of matches today, I had all day to watch and all the matches were tough physically,” Medvedev said in his on-court interview.

“Talking about our match the score might seem easy but we played two hours and first two sets were high intensity. Third set I was actually not that good physically also.

“I’m happy that I didn’t stay out here for five hours and I can be ready for the next match.”

AP

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