Andrey Rublev edged past Nick Kyrgios 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 after 1 1 hour and 51 minutes to reach the fourth round at the US Open for the second time in his career.
Two years ago Rublev became the youngest player to reach the quarter final at the US Open since a 19-year-old Andy Roddick in 2001. The young Russian player is within a match from reaching the quarter final in New York.
Rublev started his North American hard-court season with an upset win over Roger Federer in the second round in Cincinnati to achieve the bigggest win of his career and went on to beat Stefanos Tsitsipas in the first round at the US Open.
Neither player earned a break point in the first set, which came down to the tie-break. Rublev sealed the first set, wher Rublev sent a backhand wide.
Kyrgios went up a 4-0 lead in the tie-break of the second set, but Rublev fought back by winning seven of the next eight points to win the breaker. Rublev got the only break of the third set to cruise to a 6-3 win in the third set. ’19
“The tie-break, even though it looks like a 4-0 is a huge difference, if you win one point then make two good serves it’s already 4-3. And then at 4-3 someone can get tight or a lucky return or unlucky serve or a lucky serve. It looks like a big advantage, but in the end it’s not really”, said Rublev.
Rublev set up a fourth round match against Matteo Berrettini from Italy, who fought past Australian Next Gen player Alexey Popyrin 6-4 6-4 6-7 (3-7) 6-3 after 3 hours and 35 minutes. Berrettini has reached his second consecutive fourth round at Grand Slam level after last July’s Wimbledon. This week the Italian player won his first three matches against Richard Gasquet, Jordan Thompson and Alexei Popyrin in four sets.
Berrettini saved the first break point of the match in the second game with an ace his first break in the seventh game at deuce to tale a 4-3 lead. The 2019 Stuttgart tournament champion held on his next service games to take the first set 6-3. Berrettini converted his second break point chance at deuce in the ninth game with a passing shot down the line to win the second set 6-4. Berrettini wasted four break point chances in the third set, as Popyrin serving at 2-2 and 4-4 in the third set.
The third set went on serve with no breaks until the tie-break. Popyrin edged Berrettini 7-3 forcing the match to the fourth set.
Popyrin broke serve in the 11th game on his seventh break point chance after a 10-deuce game to take a 6-5 lead in the fourth set. Berrettini broke straight back on his fourth opportunity to force the fourth set to the tie-break. Berrettini sealed the win on the first of his four set points with 7-2 in the tie-break.
“This is my first year of playing all four Grand Slam tournaments during the year, so I have played a full Slam calender and then to get past the first round in two of them and to get past the second round in another two of them is an unbelievable acheivement for me”, said Popyrin.
