Medvedev’s eyes on a longer stay at the top

DANIIL Medvedev has his sights set on returning to the world number one spot after his first reign at the top lasted just a fortnight.

The 26-year-old revealed he even Googled ‘shortest time as world number one’ after Novak Djokovic reclaimed his place at the summit earlier this year.

The controversial decision to strip Wimbledon of ranking points will skew the standings with Medvedev in with a chance of climbing back above Djokovic despite being one of the Russians banned from playing at SW19.

It is without doubt a strange situation, but Medvedev insisted: “For sure I want to be there more than two weeks. I want to try to do it.

“We won’t know how this Wimbledon thing (will affect it), but I want to try to make the best results possible, starting from here.

“I went on the internet and looked just like this on Google, who were the shortest number one players in the world, and the first I saw was Pat Rafter being there for one week, and he’s an absolute legend, and Carlos Moya was somewhere there.

“So it’s something nobody can take away from me. Not that many players could take it while they play tennis. It’s a great motivation to try to come back there.”

Medvedev raced into the third round of the French Open with a 6-2 6-4 6-2 victory over Serbia’s Miomir Kecmanovic in less than two hours.

In the women’s event, Iga Swiatek had to negotiate a rare second-set dip to extend her winning streak and take another step towards her second French Open title.

The world number one seemed to be cruising into round four as she led 6-3 4-1, with two breaks of serve, against Danka Kovinic. But four games later Kovinic, ranked 95 in the world, had hit back to lead 5-4.

Swiatek managed to reset and claim a 6-3 7-5 victory for a 31st consecutive win.

“I wanted to play really aggressively but sometimes I feel I was putting in too much power and it was hard to control it,” she said.

“I needed to play with a little less risk and be more consistent.

“She did a pretty good job of defending and giving back at full speed.”

Romania’s Irina-Camelia

Begu ended the fairytale run of French wildcard Leolia Jeanjean with a 6-1 6-4 win.