Madrid, May 3 (IANS): The Tuesday morning session at the Madrid Open tennis tournament was not a good one for Russian seeds Danil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev, who both crashed out of the tournament in straight-set defeats in the Round of 16.

Medvedev has never been happy on clay and his progress to the last 16 was his best-ever showing in Madrid, where he had never previously gotten past the second round.

He lost 7-6(1), 6-4 to fellow countryman Aslan Karatsev, who looks to be recovering his form after a dip in performances saw him slip from a career-high of No.14 in 2022, down to his current ranking of 121st.

Rublev's defeat wasn't as big a shock as he succumbed 7-6(8), 6-4 to another Russian player, Karen Khachanov.

The 10th seed claimed his first win on clay against a top-10 ranked rival since 2019 and will play the winner of the match between home favourite Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev.

In the women's tournament, number two seed, Aryna Sabalenka recovered from a blip in the second set to claim a three-set win 6-2, 2-6, 6-1 over Egypt's Mayar Sherif.