It was third time lucky today for Alejandro Davidovich who, after playing in the 2018 and 2019 Mutua Madrid Opens, picked up his first win at the tournament on Tuesday.
The home player, who was granted a wildcard to play in the main draw, came back against Frenchman Pierre-Hughes Herbert after three sets (6-7 (5), 7-6 (4), 7-6 (4)) and two hours and 58 minutes on Court 4 of the Caja Mágica.
“It was a pretty cool battle to win my first match here at the Mutua Madrid Open and I’m happy with my attitude throughout the match”, explained a Davidovich who can now boast his first win in the Spanish capital.
At his first appearance in the tournament, the Junior Wimbledon champion failed to get through qualifying, bowing out to Taylor Fritz. The Malaga native faced a similar fate at the last #MMOPEN losing to French player Richard Gasquet in the first round.
Deportividad ante todo ????@p2hugz | @alexdavidovich1 #MMOPEN pic.twitter.com/Dz6vEpyNMu
— #MMOPEN (@MutuaMadridOpen) May 4, 2021
Jorge Aguirre’s pupil will now face Daniil Medvedev on Wednesday, the Russian second seed having enjoyed a bye in the first round in Madrid. The world No. 49 played down the situation saying that “these matches will come if I’m winning and playing well”.
Davidovich looks at the possibility of playing in the Manolo Santana Stadium for the first time against the ATP No. 3 as “the reward for all the work I’m putting in and I feel more motivated as it is at home”.
Although Davidovich has not enjoyed the start to 2021 he would have hoped for due to a positive COVID test before travelling to the Australian Open, he finally got the ball rolling at the start of the European clay swing.
His best result was a quarter-final finish at Monte Carlo, where a muscle injury prevented the Andalusian from finishing his match with Stefanos Tsitsipas, however his victory over top-10 player Matteo Berrettini in the second round was a huge boost.
Last week, Davidovich produced his best finish of the year by reaching the semi-finals in Estoril. Only Albert Ramos, the eventual champion of the tournament, was able to stop the Fuengirola resident from reaching the first ATP final of his career.
