“Here, it’s different courts, pretty fast. So, if I manage to meet him it could be a bit easier for me to handle his game, even though it’s tough all the time.”

Medvedev, who has a one-year-old daughter, said fatherhood has changed him.

“Hopefully, it makes me mature a little bit; maybe at times I am still immature on the court, but I’m improving slowly,” he said, smiling. “It’s a big responsibility to be a father, and how I balance it is not easy.”

He thanked his wife for sacrificing and traveling with their daughter so he can be near her. “Sometimes I have to practice less to find the balance, whereas before I was full tennis more.”

Two players who could relate to parenthood on tour are Osaka and Elina Svitolina, who are scheduled to play each other on Friday.

Osaka returned to the tour after giving birth last year.

“I remember watching Elena while I was pregnant and thinking, `I want to be there one day.’ Great deal of respect for all the Moms on tour, and I think it’s mutual. I realize how many Moms I have around me and I’m really happy my daughter is the youngest in the bunch, so I am able to ask questions when I need to.”

Svitolina, a Ukrainian player once ranked as high as No. 3 was out for a year on maternity leave, during which Russia’s war with Ukraine began. When she returned to the tour in April 2023, she was unranked, and yet she reached the Wimbledon semifinals.

She did that while also raising millions of dollars through her Svitolina Foundation for Ukrainian hospitals and maternity wards and for the rebuild of apartments buildings that were destroyed. She was asked by Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky to become an ambassador and join his United24 initiative, the official fundraising platform for the war-torn nation.

It is a role she takes seriously, and she got teary-eyed talking about it this week.

“When you’re invited by the president of your country, it’s an honor, you need to be active, and it’s a lot of pressure but I feel like it’s a privilege as well to have this position,” she said. “I am very passionate about it, and hugely motivated to do whatever I can for the people suffering in my country.”

Her fundraising helped rebuild an apartment building for 200 displaced families. Also, she was able to provide generators to hospitals so they could perform surgeries on children and soldiers injured in the fighting.

“My perspective changed a lot after the war started,” she said. “I want to win for those people in Ukraine who wake up at night to watch my matches. I want to give them good energy.”

Among the players who advanced Thursday were: No. 8 seed Maria Sakkari of Greece, who beat Yue Yuan of China in straight sets; American Madison Keys, who beat Russian teen Diana Shnaider in straight sets; American Taylor Townsend, who beat Elise Martens of Belgium; and No. 10 Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil, who rallied to get past Diane Parry of France 3-6, 6-1, 6-4.

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