The final of the first major event of the tennis season on clay, the Monte Carlo Masters 1000already has finalists for Sunday: the Russian Andrey Rublev (No. 6 in the world) and the Danish Holger Rune (N.9).
It will be the third time that the two players have met, with a victory for each so far: the Dane won last year in the round of 16 at Paris-Bercy and the Russian won this year in the round of 16 at the Australian Open in five tight sets. .
“I hope this time is different!” Rune declared when reminded of the result of their last confrontation. “I was very unlucky, but he played very well. We both played very well,” he added.
Rublev, 25, earned the right to fight for the title in the Principality after beating the American in the first semifinal Taylor Fritz (N.10), by 5-7, 6-1 and 6-3.
The match was interrupted for 1 hour and 45 minutes due to rain, with the score favorable to Rublev 5-7, 6-1, 3-2.
At the restart, Fritz lost his kick-off again and had to save three match points on his next service, but he could do nothing in the fourth match ball, this time with a service from Rublev, who also closed the match with a blank set.
“The rain, the wind, the cold… Despite everything we played good tennis, with a good match,” said Rublev, who had lost his last three duels against Fritz, all on hard surfaces.
Rublev was already a finalist on the Monegasque clay in 2021, but then lost the decisive match against Stefanos Tsitsipascurrent number three in the world and who was dropped by Fritz on Friday.
Fritz, in this way, is left without the possibility of becoming the first American tennis player to win the title in Monte Carlo.
In the Open era (starting in 1969), only five Americans managed to reach the final in the Principality and none of them lifted the trophy (Vitas Gerulaitis in 1979, Jimmy Connors in 1981, Mel Purcell in 1983, Jimmy Arias in 1987 and Aaron Krickstein in 1992).
In the second semifinal, also interrupted by rain, the victory went to Rune, who beat the Italian Jannik Sinner (1-6, 7-5 and 7-5), in a duel between two of the tennis players, together with the Spanish Carlos Alcarazcalled to take over from Federer, Nadal and Djokovic.
Sinner (21 years old and number 8 in the ATP) easily scored the first set 6-1 in just half an hour.
After the stoppage due to rain, the Dane reacted and equalized the match at one set (7-5), overcoming the attitude of the public, blatantly in favor of Italianand having conceded a scoreless game when serving to have closed the quarter at 6-4.
In the third set, Sinner had a hard time keeping his service, but he saved five ‘break’ balls, more due to Rune’s impatience in the decisive moments than the Italian’s merits, to get tied at 5-5.
“Sometimes I’m impatient, but thanks to my team I learn to be patient,” young Rune admitted after the game.
The Dane took advantage in the eleventh game and on the sixth ball he achieved the ‘break’ that gave him the victory.
It will be the second final of a Masters 1000 for Rune, who already won Paris-Bercy last year, but on a hard surface and indoors, against number 1 Novak Djokovic.
Fuente: AFP
2023-04-15 23:31:12
#Rublev #Rune #met #semis #year #clay
