The atmosphere was great, the weather was great and the tennis was even better. 19-year old Alex de Minaur and 20-year old Andrey Rublev put on a Semi-Final clinic for the fans on Saturday night at the Citi Open in Washington.
After saving four match points in the second set tie-break, the young Australian rallied and converted his own fourth match point to advance to Sunday’s Final with a 5-7, 7-6 (8-6), 6-4 victory. Superb shot making by both players including some big forehands and long rallies had the crowd highly entertained in the two hour 52 minute match.
Each player had three breaks of serve and the winners for each were just about even (33-32 for Rublev). The match was so close there was just a difference of three points between the two players. Rublev in fact winning more. De Minaur was also impressive at the net winning 16 of 20 points.
“It’s probably one of the best wins of my career,” said de Minaur. “I couldn’t be prouder of myself. I really just left it all out there and dug deep and never gave up and that’s what it’s all about”
It will now be Alex versus Alex in the Citi Open Final on Sunday. The 19-year old De Minaur will face the defending champion 21-year old Alexander Zverev. It will be the youngest ATP Final since 2007 when Rafael Nadal faced Novak Djokovic at Indian Wells. It will also be the youngest Final in Washington since 1982.
It’s the second ATP Final of de Minaur’s career. He lost to Daniil Medvedev in Sydney at the start of the year. He will also try to be the first Australian to capture the title here since Lleyton Hewitt in 2004.
Win or lose it’s been quite the past seven months for the Aussie. After starting the year World No. 208 he has since jumped all the way up to No. 72 at the start of the tournament. His win on Saturday boosted that to No. 45. If he can defeat Zverev on Sunday de Minaur will increase that to World No. 33.
@Sportshorn
