The Cincinnati tournament, Masters 1000 in the men’s branch and WTA 1000 in the women’s, held all its round of 16 tiein which the Spanish Carlos Alcaraz beat the Croatian Marin Cilic and the Argentine Diego Schwartzman fell to the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Without the pressure of defending his leadership in the ATP ranking, Medvedev defeated Canadian Denis Shapovalov, world number 21, 7-5, 7-5.
“It was a struggle today, definitely not easy,” said Medvedev, who broke his opponent in his last few games serving in each set.
On the hunt for his second win in Cincinnati after 2019, Medvedev will meet in the quarterfinals for the first time with the American Taylor Fritzchampion this year of the Indian Wells Masters 1000 and executioner on Thursday of the also Russian Andrey Rublev.
At 26, the player from Moscow is assured of reaching the world number one spot at the start of the US Open (August 29-September 11), where he will defend his 2021 triumph, his only Grand Slam crown.
only spanish Rafael Nadal threatened his leadership but was eliminated on Wednesday by Borna Coricnumber 152 in the ATP, who this Thursday dropped the also Spanish Roberto Bautista 6-2 and 6-3.
Coric met Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime in the quarterfinals, who beat Italian Jannik Sinner 2-6, 7-6 (7/1), 6-1 in a battle of promises.