El russian Andrey Rublev closed to 2021 with the triumph in the exhibition tournament Mubadala World Tennis Championship after winning without setbacks in the final to the British Andy Murray by 6-4 and 7-6 (2).
The Muscovite rounded off his good season with a more than correct performance. Behind the triumph with Russia in the Davis Cup disputed a few days ago in Madrid achieved its first success in Abu Dhabi, a traditional event in the tense farewell of each year.
The fifth player in the world showed that Murray, who beat Rafael Nadal in the semifinals, although he advances, is not yet close to being the player he was. It took one hour and 36 minutes to win and inscribe his name in the history of the competition that the British won twice: in 2009, the first edition, and in 2014.
Andy Murray could not keep up with the Russian, who in addition to Davis and Abu Dhabi increased his palmars with the Rotterdam title in this 2021. The Muscovite who has accumulated eight trophies in his career He was on the doorstep at the Masters 1000 in Cincinnati and Monte Carlo and at the Halle tournament., where he was a finalist.
Rublev is still far from the service record that adorns Murray, now out of the top hundred in the world but who became number one in 2016. The Scotsman does not win a competition from Antwerp in 2019 but in his record they stand out, among his forty-six merits, three Grand Slam and two Olympic gold medals.
Murray has evolved since he announced his retirement in January 2019 for a hip injury that was operated on twice. The British who lives with a metal prosthesis and who has shown a certain progression, especially in the middle of the season that ends, with the quarter-finals in Stockholm and Metz, his ceiling in the 2021.
And that Murray clung to the track especially in the second set. He recovered after a poor start against a solvent opponent who broke his opponent’s serve in the fifth game to accelerate the conquest of the sleeve.
It seemed like a ride for the Russian who tends to loosen up in the second sets. Especially if you consider the task as easy. It happened again. With the game on track and after a new break in the first game of the second he relaxed. Murray did not and managed to get the Russian’s service for the first time in the duel in the eighth set that he was equal and led to the ‘tie break’, where Rublev sentenced the match.
It was the Russian’s second win over the British in three games played. The previous one was months ago, in Rotterdam. Murray won the first one they met, at the 2017 Australian Open, when he was enjoying his prime.
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