Playing his first match in six weeks, having missed Wimbledon due to the ban on Russian and Belarusian players, Daniil Medvedev made a winning return to action in Los Cabos, Mexico on Wednesday night, defeating Australian qualifier Rinky Hijikata, 6-4, 6-3, in his opening match at the ATP 250 hard-court tournament.
And it was a milestone victory, too: it was the 250th win of Medvedev’s career.
The reigning US Open champion was asked afterwards about the achievement.
“Somebody told me this a few days ago on media day, otherwise I would have not known,” he said. “But that’s nice, that’s probably a milestone in a way—I want more victories, but that’s nice to have 250.
“We’ll try to get more.”
The No. 1-ranked Russian is the seventh man born in 1990 or later to reach that milestone, and just the second man born in 1995 or later to achieve the feat.
MEN BORN IN 1990 OR LATER TO RECORD 250 CAREER WINS (tour-level):
372: Milos Raonic (372-175) [born in 1990]
365: Grigor Dimitrov (365-243) [born in 1991]
339: Alexander Zverev (339-150) [born in 1997]
316: Dominic Thiem (316-175) [born in 1993]
314: David Goffin (314-214) [born in 1990]
252: Pablo Carreno Busta (252-201) [born in 1991]
250: Daniil Medvedev (250-109) [born in 1996]
Medvedev, who’s currently in his 11th career week at No. 1 on the ATP rankings, will face No. 98-ranked Lithuanian Ricardas Berankis in the quarterfinals on Thursday.