Daniil Medvedev stated on Monday he struggled from the results of Covid-19 for “5 to six weeks” after testing positive for the virus in April. The Russian second seed reached the French Open second round for the first time in his career after four straight opening-round defeats at Roland Garros, beating Alexander Bublik 6-3, 6-3, 7-5. The 25-year-old, a two-time Grand Slam runner-up, said afterwards that he only recently felt back to 100 percent fitness after recovering from coronavirus. “Coming to Madrid (earlier this month), I was like at maybe 70 percent or 60 percent. I think that’s how Covid affects your body,” stated Medvedev.
“It’s at all times powerful to say as a result of typically through the 12 months you’re going to have these down moments.
“So perhaps it was simply one in all them. Yeah, I really feel like Covid was powerful for perhaps 5, six weeks since I acquired it. Now I really feel one hundred pc.”
Medvedev had to withdraw from the Monte Carlo Masters when he tested positive on April 13 and only won one match in his next two tournaments ahead of the French Open.
“It’s never easy to talk about this because coming with Covid is also isolation straight away, which meant that 10 days I was at home, basically almost all the time lying on the sofa,” he added.
“Even if I attempted to do some bodily, I was additionally not feeling that effectively so I couldn’t do a lot. And I’ve a small residence.
“The hardest second was through the 10 days, I feel on the second or third day after I knew that I was optimistic, that’s the place I felt not so good.
“But nothing too critical both as a result of I was in a position to depart. I was not laying down having hallucinations or something.”
Medvedev, whose 10 ATP titles have all come on hard courts, is looking to take advantage of being in the opposite part of the draw from Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.
It was only his 12th win on clay out of 180 career matches.
“The most important (thing) is the level of tennis I’ve been showing, as I said before the tournament, it was not mind games,” Medvedev stated.
“My opponent can see I was actually feeling good. I managed to play constant at this time. I really performed significantly better in observe nonetheless than at this time, so there’s room for enchancment.”
He will face Tommy Paul of the United States for a place in the third round.
Medvedev, who lost to Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open final in February, has no Grand Slam champions in his half of the draw after fourth seed Dominic Thiem’s shock loss to Pablo Andujar on Sunday.
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