Medvedev earns much-needed win in Marseille

Daniil Medvedev has not had things all his own way in 2025, but he earned victory on Thursday at the Open 13 Provence in Marseille to reach his first quarter-final of the season.

The top seed overcame French qualifier Pierre-Hugues Herbert 6-2, 6-4 in 70 minutes at the ATP 250 event in a repeat of the 2021 final, which Medvedev also won.

Medvedev suffered a second-round defeat to #NextGenATP American Learner Tien at the Australian Open and then lost in the second round in Rotterdam to Italian qualifier Mattia Bellucci. Chasing a confidence-boosting win, the No. 8 in the PIF ATP Rankings won 90 per cent (26/29) of his first-serve points to improve to 3-1 in the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series.

"Funny enough we have played five times on Tour and three times in Marseille," Medvedev said. "It is where we meet all the time and I am happy that I played at a good level. Did not lose my serve and happy to win."

Wild card Medvedev is seeking his first title since he won in Rome in May 2023 and will next play Jan-Lennard Struff after the German beat Hugo Grenier 6-4, 5-7, 6-4.

"I lost early in Australia. I thought sometimes when I play good in Australia, which has happened many times, your body is used already and tired. So you want to take it a bit slower. But I played two matches, even if they were tough, so I thought I might as well play many tournaments and Marseille is one I like," Medvedev said on accepting a wild card.

Earlier, Zhang Zhizhen upset fourth seed Hubert Hurkacz 6-4, 6-7(1), 6-3 in a battle between two big hitters to make his 11th ATP Tour quarter-final. The Chinese player outhit Hurkacz, who reached the semi-finals at the ATP 500 in Rotterdam last week, by 37 winners to 30 during their two-hour, eight-minute clash.

“I felt great on court today, it was the same goal as the first match, I tried to put the match to the tie-break, and that’s how I wanted to play,” said Zhang, who reached the quarter-finals in Marseille in 2024. “I guess I like it here, two years in the quarters, hopefully I can have better results in the singles because I couldn’t do anything with my doubles.”

By defeating Hurkacz, Zhang notched his first win over a Top 20 opponent on hard courts since defeating the Pole in Tokyo in 2023. The World No. 52, who holds a 3-7 record in tour-level quarter-finals, will next face Zizou Bergs.

Belgium’s Bergs outlasted eighth seed Nuno Borges 6-2, 6-7(5), 6-2 to reach his fifth tour-level quarter-final (1-3), and third indoors. With his two-hour and 10-minute win, the 25-year-old improved to 2-0 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with Borges. Their other meeting came last month in the semi-finals in Auckland, which Bergs also won in three sets.

Bergs, the No. 62 in the PIF ATP Rankings, regrouped after losing a tight second set to motor through a dominant decider. The Belgian won 100 per cent (10/10) of first-serve points, according to Infosys ATP Stats, and did not face a break point in the final set.