Andrey Rublev cruised past Felix Auger Aliassime 6-1 6-4 to reach the third final of his career at the Bitpanda Hamburg Open, an ATP 500 clay-court tournament.
Rublev hit 18 winners and did not face a break point.
Rublev broke Auger Aliassime twice in the second and sixth games to win the opening set 6-1. He broke again in the ninth game of the second set to take a 5-4 lead and held serve on his second match point to reach the final.
Rublev improved to 7-1 in his 8 head-to-head matches against Auger Aliassime.
“It was my best match of the week, for sure. I think I’m playing better match by match. It helped me that Felix played a really tough match against Alexandre Muller last night, it finished quite late. It also gave me a bit of an advantage”, said Rublev.
Rublev set up a final against Italy’s Flavio Cobolli, who came back from one set down to beat clay-court specialist Tomas Etchevery 2-6 7-5 6-4.
Etcheverry earned his first break points in the sixth game and converted on his third opportunity to take a 4-2 lead. The Argentine player closed out the first set 6-2 with a double break in the eighth game.
Etcheverry broke Cobolli’s serve once more in the fourth game to open up a 3-1 lead. Cobolli broke straight back in the fifth game and held his serve at 30 to draw level to 3-3. Cobolli broke for the second time in the 11th game to take a 6-5 lead and held serve in the 12th game to clinch the second set 7-5.
Both players went on serve until the ninth game when Cobolli broke to take a 5-4 lead. The Italian player held serve on his first match point to reach the first ATP 500 final of his career. “We fought a lot, spent a lot of energy on this court, but at the end there is only one winner. I’m really happy and emotional, super excited to wake up for tomorrow’s final”, said Cobolli.
