By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Saturday, October 22, 2022
Daniil Medvedev, last seen retiring from the semifinals of the Astana Open against Novak Djokovic due to an injury, will play next week’s Erste Bank Open in Vienna.
His agent, Olivier Van Lindonk, confirmed the news in an email.
“Today, Daniil decided with his medical team to play Vienna,” he wrote. “He will get there this weekend.”
While facing Djokovic in Kazakhstan, Medvedev said he felt a pop in his adductor during the second-set tiebreak. His retirement left Djokovic surprised. But Medvedev, who had won the opening set from Djokovic, knew he was in trouble the moment he heard the pop.
“It’s the second time in my life I retired like this with a pulled muscle,” fourth-ranked Medvedev said after the match. “So here, on the second point of the tie-break, I felt a little bit [of a] strange pop in my adductor. I first thought maybe it is cramp and after the point I was like, `No, probably not a cramp.’
“And during the tie-break, I felt I can play like five, 10 more points but that’s it,” he said. “If I play one more set, you can do it, but you can probably miss half a year instead of one month.”
Medvedev will join a field that includes Stefanos Tsitsipas, Andrey Rublev, Cameron Norrie and Dominic Thiem, Jannik Sinner, Taylor Fritz, Matteo Berrettini and more.
The Russian will face Nikoloz Basilashvili in the first round and will face Dominic Thiem or Tommy Paul in the second round if he advances.
Medvedev will make his second appearance at Vienna. He reached the quarterfinals in 2022 before bowing out to Kevin Anderson.