They say when life gives you lemons, make lemonade – that’s what Daniil Medvedev did this past week as he waited until Sunday to play his first match at the Mutua Madrid Open.

With a bye in the opening round and a walkover in the second, due to Laslo Djere’s withdrawal from the tournament, Medvedev spent a week practising and patiently waiting to get on court.

When he finally did, he produced a clinical 6-2, 6-2 performance to defeat Argentina’s Juan Manuel Cerundolo and move into the round of 16 at the Caja Magica.

While others may struggle to find their form after going 17 days without playing an official match, Medvedev took it in his stride and delivered when he needed to.

“You get lucky in a way to go into the next round. Maybe some players prefer to play the match to get in the rhythm. But, you know, Laslo is a tricky opponent, so unfortunate for him, and I would prefer to play, but when it happens, you’re into the next round, you have one match less to win the tournament, so that’s also a positive thing,” said the No.9 seed.

“I just continued to practice. Even the day that this happened, because he retired kind of like one or two hours before the match, I went on the practice court, practiced again, and it didn’t feel strange. Happy that I managed to play well today.”

A former world No.1 and US Open champion, Medvedev is having, by his standards, a modest season so far.

Searching for a first title since he lifted the trophy in Rome in 2023, the 29-year-old is 15-8 win-loss in 2025 entering his last-16 clash with American Brandon Nakashima on Tuesday.

A self-proclaimed hard-court specialist, he has made significant progress on clay in recent years, and is feeling more and more comfortable on the surface with every passing tournament.

“I’m feeling better and better on clay. So the mindset is to try to really do something big,” Medvedev said of his mindset this clay-court season.

“I won Rome, so now I’m much more confident in myself. I had some top wins.”

Medvedev kicked off his campaign on the red dirt with two hard-fought wins in Monte Carlo over Karen Khachanov and Alexandre Muller before falling tamely to Alex de Minaur in the round of 16.

“I beat two really good guys on clay (in Monte Carlo). I was really disappointed to lose super easy to Alex, but he played a great match,” said Medvedev.

“It was still like a good thing to see, okay, next time if I play him, or someone who plays this level on clay, I need to really do much better, and that’s what I tried to do here in Madrid.

“So no real goals in terms of points or something, but I want to try to play my best tennis, and I know that now on clay I can play almost kind of the same as on hard courts.”

Medvedev won his sole previous meeting with Nakashima, at Indian Wells two years ago.

The American hit a career-high ranking of 31 in the world earlier this month and is through to the fourth round in Madrid for the first time.

“It was long ago, and Indian Wells is kind of two times slower than here, so a bit different,” said Medvedev, reflecting on his previous clash against Nakashima.

“But he improved very well, I think especially kind of starting last year I would say second part of the season playing well, a lot of great wins.

“I think he has a very good serve from what I’m seeing. Kind of didn’t practice with him, didn’t play with him since a long time, so it’s going to be interesting. I just hope that I can show exactly what I showed today, and then it’s going to be tough to beat me.”