Madrid (Spain), May 2 (IANS) The Tuesday morning session at the Madrid Open tennis tournament was not a good one for Russian seeds Danil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev, who both crashed out of the tournament in straight-set defeats in the Round of 16.Medvedev has never been happy on clay and his progress to the last 16 was his best-ever showing in Madrid, where he had never previously gotten past the second round.He lost 7-6(1), 6-4 to fellow countryman Aslan Karatsev, who looks to be recovering his form after a dip in performances saw him slip from a career-high of No.14 in 2022, down to his current ranking of 121st.Rublev's defeat wasn't as big a shock as he succumbed 7-6(8), 6-4 to another Russian player, Karen Khachanov.The 10th seed claimed his first win on clay against a top-10 ranked rival since 2019 and will play the winner of the match between home favourite Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev.In the women's tournament, number two seed, Aryna Sabalenka recovered from a blip in the second set to claim a three-set win 6-2, 2-6, 6-1 over Egypt's Mayar Sherif.
--IANSbsk
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