A month on from losing the Australian Open final Daniil Medvedev has returned to action in winning fashion, opening his title defence at the Dubai Championships by beating Alexander Shevchenko 6-3 7-5.
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The top-seeded Medvedev had withdrawn from tournaments in Doha and Rotterdam because of fatigue and a right foot problem following his loss to Jannik Sinner at Melbourne Park.
Trailing 5-3 in the second set, Medvedev won four straight games to clinch the win and move on to face Lorenzo Sonego.
"In general, to be honest, (I'm) happy with my level because it's not easy to come back after an injury," the fourth-ranked Medvedev said in his on-court interview.
Medvedev said he "didn't feel any pain" in defeating the 47th-ranked Shevchenko. After losing to Sinner, Medvedev had taken 10 days off and "started feeling pain here and there" when he returned to practice.
In the same half of the draw Chris O'Connell booked a meeting with World No.8 Hubert Hurkacz with a 6-2 6-4 dismissal of German qualifier Marterer.
The Australian broke in the third and fifth games of the opening set to take a 5-1 lead, and in the ninth of the second before wrapping up the match in 75 minutes.
Among other first-round matches Tuesday, fourth-seeded Karen Khachanov beat Luca Van Assche 6-2 6-3; fifth-seeded Ugo Humbert outlasted Gael Monfils 4-6 6-3 6-3 to line up a second round match with Andy Murray; and eighth-seeded Alejandro Davidovich Fokina defeated Fabian Marozsan 6-3 4-6 6-1.
Australian Associated Press
