Serbia’s Hamad Medjedovic earned his second consecutive win to grab first place in the Red Group at the Next Gen ATP Finals on Wednesday in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
The event format calls for best-of-five play, with four games winning the set. Eight players are divided into two groups — red and green.
Medjedovic defeated France’s Luca Van Assche 4-2, 2-4, 4-3 (7), 4-1, rallying from a 5-1 deficit in the third-set tiebreaker.
At 2-0, Medjedovic has a one-win lead on Van Assche and Jordan’s Abdullah Shelbayh, who beat the United States’ Alex Michelsen 4-2, 1-4, 4-0, 4-0 on Wednesday. Michelsen fell to 0-2.
In the Green Group, top-seeded Arthur Fils of France routed Italy’s Flavio Cobolli 4-1, 4-2, 4-2 to improve to 2-0. Cobolli slipped to 1-1, while Switzerland’s Dominic Stricker moved to 1-1 with a 4-1, 4-1, 4-2 win over Italian Luca Nardi.
The Next Gen ATP Finals are the season-ending event for the top-ranked male players 21 and under.
Carlos Alcaraz of Spain and Holger Rune on Denmark both qualified by age, but they also qualified for the overall ATP Finals and are not in Jeddah. Ben Shelton (medical) and Lorenzo Musetti (personal) both withdrew.
After the round-robin stage, the tournament moves to the semifinals.
–Field Level Media
