Los Cabos (Mexico) – ATP 250 Los Cabos big names Daniil Medvedev and Felix Auger-Aliassime won their first matches on Wednesday night. In this way, they are already assured of the quarter-finals of the Mexican tournament on hard ground.

Banned from playing at Wimbledon due to the ban on Russian and Belarusian players, Medvedev has not played since Mallorca’s ATP season on grass. The world number 1 beat the Australian from the qualifying Rinky Hijikata, only 224th in the standings, by 6/4 and 6/3 at 1h31 from the start.

“It’s not easy to come back after so long without playing, especially since it’s the first hard game since Miami, I think it’s been five months. The feelings weren’t bad, of course I can still improve, but when we win it’s fine. I try to play like that in the next matches”.

Back to business 🙌@DaniilMedwed defeats Hijikata 6-4 6-3 to reach the Los Cabos quarter-finals.#ATC2022 pic.twitter.com/BJS6R9R8yx

– Tennis TV (@TennisTV) August 4, 2022

His first victory in Mexico was the 250th of the ranking leader’s career. He now faces the Lithuanian Ricardas Berankis, 98th, who beat the Argentinian Facundo Bagnis 7/6 (7-4) and 6/3. “I heard about that number a few days ago, they told me about it on Media Day. It’s really cool to reach 250 career wins, but of course I want to improve even more.”

Medvedev fired five aces in the match and only faced one break point. The Russian created seven breakout chances and took advantage of one in each set. In the first round, he conceded just six points in his service games and only went broke in the final game. In the second set, he started to press Hijikata’s serve more often, but the Aussie ran away with very aggressive play from the back. But the leader of the standings framed a 12-point streak from a possible 13 and went from 2/2 to 5/2 on the scoreboard, closing the match soon after.

World number one Daniil Medvedev performs at #ATC2022 with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Australian Rinky Hijikata and advances to the quarter-finals against Ricardas Berankis. #Stronger than ever pic.twitter.com/Eya7kyv9mr

— Mifel Tennis Open (@AbiertoLosCabos) August 4, 2022

Aliassime beats local guest and makes Wednesdays
Earlier, Felix Auger-Aliassime beat local guest Alex Hernandez 6/3 and 7/5. It was the 31st victory of the season for the 21-year-old Canadian ranked number 9. In 2022, he has a title in Rotterdam and a vice-champion in Marseille. His next opponent will be American Steve Johnson, who beat Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis 6/7 (3-7), 6/4 and 6/4.

Another game in the quarters already set will pit Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic against American Brandon Nakashima, who beat his Australian rivals in the round. Kecmanovic passed with 6/4 and 6/2 for Jordan Thompson, while Nakashima scored a double 6/3 against Max Purcell.

Moldovan Radu Albot also advanced. He beat Australian Jason Kubler 6/4 and 6/2. His next rival could be Briton Cameron Norrie, seeded 3, or young Taiwanese Chun-Hsin Tseng.