Legend:
It wasn’t the racket
A dissatisfied Henri Laaksonen.
Reuters
- Henri Laaksonen was eliminated in the first round of the Australian Open in Melbourne.
- The Schaffhausen player is defeated by the favored Russian Daniil Medvedev (ATP 2) despite some bright spots 1: 6, 4: 6, 6: 7 (3: 7).
- Laaksonen turns up the heat after a weak first set, but makes too many mistakes overall.
The uproar came too late. Henri Laaksonen was at least able to balance the third set because the numbers suddenly added up: he scored 64% of the points after the first serve, was extremely successful at the net (86%) and hit more winners than Daniil Medvedev (10:8 ).
Basically, he hadn’t made a perfect appearance, but he was hardly challenged at the beginning. In the tie-break of the 3rd set, Medvedev and the greater callousness prevailed. Laaksonen will mourn this sentence for a long time.
Dream start and slump
Laaksonen got off to a good start against Medvedev, who is not known as a quick starter: in the first game he took the serve from the tournament favorite. From then on it only went downhill in the first set. The next game was a clean sheet for the Russians, Laaksonen seemed stiff-necked. The 29-year-old also moved far too little afterwards, Medvedev easily scored 6-1 in the first round.
At least at the end of the sentence, Laaksonen showed himself to be a little more present in the Rod Laver Arena and fended off 2 set balls when Medvedev served, then made a mistake on the 3rd. Nevertheless, he then started the second set with more self-confidence. For his part, the Russian acted more and more passively, letting Laaksonen get into the rallies. A break at the right time was enough for Medvedev to win the second round.
While Laaksonen’s Melbourne adventure ends as expected early, Medvedev will have to leave the game with the realization that the desired first triumph “down under” definitely needs more than what is shown.