(Madrid) World No.3 Daniil Medvedev and world No.6 Andrey Rublev were both stopped in the round of 16 at the Madrid Masters 1000 on Tuesday, each by another Russian.
Medvedev, not very fond of clay, fell 7-6 (7/1), 6-4 against Aslan Karatsev, a surprise semi-finalist at the 2021 Australian Open who fell outside the top 100.
Earlier, Rublev, one of the in-form players of the clay season, was surprised by Karen Khachanov (12th) on the same score, but 10 points to 8 in the decisive game.
Rublev remained on a first Masters 1000 title won in Monte-Carlo in mid-April followed by a final in Banja Luka (Bosnia), lost to Serbian Dusan Lajovic (40th). Medvedev had stopped in the quarter-finals in the Principality.
Khachanov will challenge world No.2 Carlos Alcaraz or German Alexander Zverev, outgoing finalist, for a place in the last four in the Spanish capital. This will be his first quarter-final on ocher in the Masters 1000.
Karatsev will face either the American Taylor Fritz (10th) or the Chinese Zhizhen Zhang (99th), in the first Masters 1000 quarter-final of his career.
All the knockout stages of the men’s draw are scheduled for Tuesday.
