MOSCOW, October 18, 2018

Daniil Medvedev opened his title bid on home soil at the VTB Kremlin Cup on Thursday with a convincing win. The No. 2 seed of the ATP World Tour 250 event eased past Dusan Lajovic of Serbia 6-2, 6-1.

Medvedev converted five of his 11 break point opportunities to advance in only 53 minutes. The 22-year-old Moscow native will next take on Ricardas Berankis of Lithuania.

Australia’s Nick Kyrgios was forced to withdraw from his second round match against Mirza Basic of Bosnia and Herzegovina due to elbow injury.

“Sorry guys, I won’t be able to play this evening. It is obviously very unfortunate to deal with an ongoing elbow injury. It kept me at the start of the season for months or two, and now it started to bother me a little bit this week. I am going to choose to wrap up my season and to go home. I will start a recovery and see you in 2019 and hopefully be back in Moscow. See you, guys,” Kyrgios was quoted on the tournament’s official website.