6-1 in the second round of the Dubai Tennis Championships yesterday while third seed Yevgeny Kafelnikov was beaten by Sweden's Thomas Johansson.

Bermuda-based Rafter made a fine start against Medvedev, who is feeling his way back following a lengthy break from the game.

The Ukrainian tore two ligaments in his right foot at the end of July, and didn't play or practise again until December.

Rafter gained a break in the second game and led 4-1 before letting things slip. He double-faulted twice in succession to drop his serve in the seventh game, and although he held a set point at 6-5 Medvedev escaped and then dominated the tiebreak.

Rafter managed to sneak the second set, but he double-faulted again to gift Medvedev a 3-1 lead in the decider.

"I just felt like I struggled all day out there, especially with my serve -- and that didn't give me much confidence for the rest of my game,'' Rafter said.

"I just wasn't convincing with my serve and volley game today. I missed too many volleys and let him back into the match.

"I had that set point and I guess it would have been different if I'd have broken and won the first set, but it's disappointing. At the end of the first set he was starting to return very well. He was seeing my serve very well and he was aggressive from the baseline and I couldn't force the issue.

"One thing I was impressed with today was his second serve. It was very deep and hitting the lines. I couldn't be aggressive on it.'' Medvedev was thrilled to be in the quarter-finals so soon after his comeback, which began in Auckland last month.

"Today I can say I played one of my best matches in a very long time,'' he said.

"I started badly and slowly got myself back into the match and won the tiebreak, and everything seemed to fall into place.

"The last two sets, even though I lost the second one, I thought I played very, very well. If I would have lost this match I would still have come out and said I was happy.''