While left to rue a rare chance at beating his nation’s greatest sportsman, Novak Djokovic, on home soil in Belgrade last month, there were positives Djere carried from that match to Paris.
Story of the match
On Thursday, the more natural clay-courter, Djere, settled faster and landed an immediate break, but from 2-0 the margins on his more aggressive approach began to shrink as Medvedev slowly found his range.
The second seed remained troubled by his opponent’s authoritative baseline blows despite having turned the set in his favour and throughout the second, Djere had him on a string, more often than not brought unstuck as a result of pushing for too much once he created the opening.
That was not to detract from Medvedev’s unyielding defence, but when he resorted to back-to-back net approaches to successfully fend off a break at 3-4, it raised a question.