Five times an ATP Masters champion but without a win in three previous visits to Rome, Medvedev finally broke his duck with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Emil Ruusuvuori that was more complicated than the score-line would suggest. 

While Medvedev received a bye into the second round by virtue of his seeded status, Ruusuvuori, ranked 40 places below the Russian world No 3 but accomplished enough to push Carlos Alcaraz to a deciding set at the Madrid Open last month, toiled for three gruelling hours to make his way past Ugo Humbert. Yet whatever the Finn lacked in freshness he more than made up for in match sharpness and familiarity with the slower conditions in Rome and, when the 24-year-old raced into an early lead, it looked as though Medvedev’s debut in Stadio Nicola Pietrangeli would be an unhappy one.

With three games gone, Medvedev had made nine unforced errors to his opponent’s one and was yet to make an impression on the scoreboard. Tellingly, however, Ruusuvuori was doing nothing particularly out of the ordinary. He produced some nice variations of pace and height but, on a surface where Medvedev is never entirely at home, Ruusuvuori’s most telling weapon was an ability to keep the ball in play. That, of course, is traditionally the Russian’s forte, and slowly he began to find his groove, applying more topspin to his forehand and beginning to move more comfortably. 

“It was a little bit [of a relief],” said Medvedev of his maiden win beneath the iconic Carrara marbles. “We can talk about all of the matches I lost here, they were different. One of them, the first one [against Robin Haase of the Netherlands in 2018], I feel like I should have won.

“But it [what it is], every time I come to a tournament I know that I can play well, so I’m happy to finally get the win here in Rome.”

It might have been a different story had Ruusuvuori not narrowly failed to angle away a makeable drop volley that would have given him a break point for 4-0. Instead, Medvedev held and dropped just two more points as he rattled through the next two games to level the set. With the rallies lengthening and Ruusuvuori’s mistakes mounting, the momentum shifted irretrievably. Ruusuvuori would end the contest with 32 unforced errors, Medvedev with a tour-leading 32nd match win of the season.

“I want to win as many matches as possible, I know it can be a little bit trickier for me on clay, but honestly this year I’m playing really well,” said Medvedev, who will face Spain’s Bernabe Zapata Miralles in round three.

“The matches I lost, I lost against great opponents who played actually just better than me, and not much to say. I’m doing my absolute best, I’m playing good, I already beat a lot of good opponents. I beat Emil last week [in Madrid], one of only two players who won a set against Carlos [Alcaraz], so I’m feeling great and I’m just looking forward to try to play my best tennis till the end of the clay season.”

Novak Djokovic also weathered some difficult moments as he claimed a 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 against Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov. Djokovic, the top seed and defending champion, led by a set and 4-2 before Dimitrov reeled off four consecutive games to level the match. The situation briefly rekindled memories of Djokovic’s loss to Lorenzo Musetti in Monte Carlo, where the Serb led by an identical score-line. There was to be no repeat on this occasion, however, a double fault costing Dimitrov an immediate break after Djokovic had set up the opportunity with a beautifully constructed rally. 

“Playing Grigor is always a challenge,” said Djokovic, who will face Cameron Norrie, the British 13th seed, in round three. 

“I know that he’s going to deliver his quality. He is one of the most talented players on the tour, without a doubt, for many years.  

“Towards the end of the second set, he showed what he’s capable of. He started to raise the level. He obviously had a good support of the crowd. The momentum shifted to his side. I was set and 4-2 up, had chances to close out the match, but I didn’t.  

“I was very pleased that I managed to find again the right rhythm in the first game of the third set right away. That was super important to make a break early and kind of hold things under control.”

Norrie was detained in similar fashion, finding himself drawn into a dogfight after leading Marton Fucsovics, the world No 92, by a set and 5-1. The Hungarian saved six match points before Norrie, the British 13th seed, prevailed 6-2, 7-6 (7-4). 

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A year after he swept all before him in the Spanish capital, defeating Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Alexander Zverev in successive rounds, Alcaraz was in very real danger of falling at the first hurdle. Ruusuvuori was the winner of their only previous meeting, two years ago in Miami, and while Alcaraz is a very different player now, the manner in which the smooth-hitting Finn dictated the opening set suggested he was more than capable of a repeat. 

There is a little of Jannik Sinner, another player who troubles Alcaraz, about Ruusuvuori. Tall, wiry and understated, the Finn fires clean, precise groundstrokes with equal facility off either wing, not least on the return, where he repeatedly landed the ball at Alcaraz’s feet, leaving the defending champion off balance and flicking at improvised half-volleys. On one occasion, the ball arrived back at Alcaraz’s shoe tops so swiftly that he was forced to take a low forehand on the volley from just inside the baseline.

It is rare for the Spaniard to absorb rather than administer such punishment, rarer still for him to suffer an off day. And as the unforced errors mounted – nearly half of his 33 mistakes came in the first set – the spectacle became ever more incongruous. Alcaraz looked as perplexed as anyone; we are accustomed to seeing him fight, but not against himself. 

Ruusuvuori backed up his impressive play off the ground with immaculate serving, particularly in the opening set, where he landed just over two-thirds of his first deliveries and won the point whenever he did. Ruusuvuori’s dominance was such that, by the time he cemented a 4-1 first-set lead, he had won 14 of the previous 18 points; Alcaraz’s frustration was such that, when he missed a routine pass five games into the second set, there was a rare flash of anger from the teenager, who slammed his racket into the court.

“I do not support this kind of thing and I regret it,” Alcaraz, who will play Grigor Dimitrov in the next round, later told Spanish reporters. “I have discussed it with Juan Carlos [Ferrero, his coach] and this type of thing cannot happen.”

The acid test for Alcaraz, the top seed in the absence of the injured Djokovic, came in the next game, where he battled for 14 minutes, fending off five break points, before finally holding for 3-3. It was a fascinating vignette, one that showcased the Spaniard’s mental steel as his game flickered in and out of life, brilliant one moment, baffling the next. The best of it was an impudent, skipping half-volley that set up an easy putaway; the worst of it, a backhand that flew inexplicably long, barely bouncing before it hit the advertising hoardings. But on a day when his usual assurance frequently deserted him, Alacaraz found what he needed when he most needed it. When he finally clinched the game with a rifled backhand winner, emitting a prolonged, triumphant roar, it felt like a turning point – and so it proved.

“I would say I was about to lose,” said Alcaraz of that pivotal game. “It was just one point. One of the break points he had at 3-2 in the second set was like a match point for him. I’m really happy I was able to save that game and come back a little bit.

“When I saved my serving game, being 3-3 in the second, I thought, ‘This is my chance, this is my moment.’ I tried to take that. I was very, very focused, I tried to put every ball in and run to every ball. I would say with a good attitude in the whole match I was able to come back.

“Emil was better than me until 3-3 in the second set. He was playing well with no mistakes, hitting the ball so, so good, with a lot of rhythm, and I couldn’t follow his rhythm. It was very tough for me to stay there, but I’m really happy to be able to come back and finish with a lot of confidence.”

The same could be said for Zverev, who survived an equally searching examination at the hands of Spain’s Roberto Carballes Baena, eventually coming through 6-7 (6-8), 7-5, 6-0 in a contest that finished shortly before 1.30am local time. The German former world No 2, twice the champion in Madrid, required treatment on a leg injury in the first set but eventually recovered from a set and a break down to prevail in three hours and 25 minutes.

As Alcaraz put it afterwards, “Sufrimos, pero ganamos”: “We suffer, but we win.”

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