The former world number nine and 1995 Davis Cup finalist, Andrey Chesnokov, shared his thoughts on Russian tennis player Daniil Medvedev‘s performance in the third-round match of the 2026 Australian Open against Hungarian Fabian Marozsan. The match concluded with a score of 6:7 (5:7), 4:6, 7:5, 6:0, 6:3 in favor of the Russian player.

“At the start of the match, Medvedev and Marozsan exchanged breaks right away. After a tense first set, Daniil lost focus. Although the second set ended 6:4, Daniil didn’t perform well at all. He suffered an early break, followed by another, putting the score at 4:1. Then Marozsan capitalized on his serve, and right after that, there was another break. Throughout the first two sets, Marozsan didn’t commit a single double fault. On the other hand, how many did Daniil accumulate? Quite a few for the 11th-ranked player in the world.

In the third set, down two sets and giving away an early break is tough to recover from, but Medvedev did well. He displayed great character and held on. Daniil played excellently at 6:5, and then he dominated the fourth set—this is how tennis should be played and how you win Grand Slam tournaments.

In the third set, it became apparent that Medvedev had latched on like an octopus and began to overwhelm Marozsan. In the fifth set, Daniil appeared physically stronger. Towards the end of the match, Marozsan started making double the number of errors. Medvedev clung on, akin to an octopus. You know how it is when you’re swimming and an octopus gets hold of you: you swim with all your might, but eventually, it will drag you down,” Chesnokov remarked in a conversation with Championship correspondent Yegor Kabak.