Andrey Rublev will play in the final of the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam after beating Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-3,7-5.
The Russian hit 34 winners en route to reaching the 10th ATP finals of his career and first this season. Meanwhile, Tsitsipas produced a total of 13 unforced errors. The win is a case of sweet revenge for Rublev who had lost to her Greek rival in their two previous meeting on the Tour. He has now levelled their head-to-head at 3-3.
“[I play tennis] to play at the best level, to play at the best tournaments, to try to compete, then to go deep and to try to win them,” Rublev said in an on-court interview. “A final is always special, so I am going to try to do my best tomorrow.”
After both players held their opening service games it was the Russian who earned the first breakpoint of the match and would break as the world number six would serve a double fault to give the world number eight a 2-1 lead.
The Athens, Greece native had a chance to break back the very next game but the Russian was up to the task of saving it and holding serve to consolidate the break.
At 3-2 the Greek had another chance to break back with three breakpoints but again the Russian stood tall saving all three before eventually holding serve but the games were getting tighter and tighter.
Rublev would serve out the first set to love and take it 6-3 and was one set away from making another ATP final.
The second set was closer than any other set played this week and there wasn’t a breakpoint the entire set. Both players were doing a better job of holding serve and the set headed into a tiebreaker.
The Greek would crack first as on his first service point of the breaker he would send a return into the net giving his Russian opponent a 2-0 lead which he would consolidate as the world number six hit another unforced error to make it 3-0.
That was more than enough for Rublev who would serve out the set and the match taking the breaker 7-2 and the set 7-6 to seal the victory and a coveted spot in Sundays final.
After the match Tsitsipas was pretty blunt in his thoughts of how the match went.
“He killed me”
He would go on to say that he felt his serve let him down and that as the match progressed he felt it getting weaker and weaker and it actually started in his doubles match yesterday.
In his post match press conference UbiTennis asked him if he felt his aggressive game overpowered Tsitsipas.
” To be honest I wasn’t really thinking about it, I was just thinking about myself that I need to go for the shots I need to hit if not he will do it, he played aggressive, he has a really good forehand, he’s really good at the net and he is one of the best on tour at the net so as soon as he have chance he go to the net so I was trying to be the first one to hit the ball, I wasn’t really thinking if I am hitting hard or not”
Rublev will now either face Borna Coric or Marton Fucsovics in the final on Sunday afternoon and the winner will be decided tonight in the night session.
