This is how Rublev beat Rune in the Monte Carlo final

The final of the Monte Carlo Masters 1000 was an unusual match between two players who, perhaps, no one had expected would end up facing each other for the title. The Russian, Andrey Rublev, was proclaimed champion after beating the Dane, Holger Rune, by 5-7 6-2 7-5. Both players had already met twice: a victory for Rublev and another for Rune. In addition, those duels took place on a totally different surface from the clay courts of the Monegasque country. How was that match statistically? What did Rublev do to win? Brain Game analyzed this encounter and extracted a series of interesting data.

The reverse: Rublev’s deadly weapon

First of all, the reverse of the Russian was key to take the victory. This blow was very effective and his best chance to disarm Rune. He racked up 31 straight shots from the 1-4 final set. At the same time, Rune’s backhand completely broke down, just like him. And it is that he only hit 31 backhand shots, made 6 errors and hit 2 winners. Thus, Rublev obtained better data with his backhand than his rival, who used it as a last resort.

And it is that the last set is the one that can be extracted the most. Brain Game identifies three important moments of him. First: the service from Rublev. Although the Russian was down on the scoreboard and almost experienced a double break when he served at 1-4 with 30-40, he surprised Rune. The Russian varied his serve to despair his opponent who could not guess his intentions. Rublev deflected his serves back and forth almost as often. 52% of his first serve went to the ad side and 44% to the T.

Rune and his mental despair

Second. The pressure What Rune got into when serving at 4-2 was huge. The Dane got desperate and committed two double faults to end up giving up the game. And in the 5 all, Rune’s head did his thing again, condemning him to commit a double fault with a break point against.

Third. The remains of the Russian also deeply marked the future of the meeting. In that comeback from 1-4, Rublev only missed 2 points from the rest, while he took advantage of 2 misses from his rival. For his part, Rune committed 7 return errors and forced Rublev to commit only 2 service errors.

As for the track background, the statistics were more even. Rublev won 51% of his points from there and Rune 46%. What was most striking, however, was the Rublev’s 78% hit on the net. Although Rune tried more times from that position, he made many more mistakes. And finally, he draws attention to the statistics that have to do with the left. The Dane was helped a lot by this shot all week, but he didn’t have his best day or his best hand to make them in the final. Out of 15 drop shots he took, he only hit 7.

In this way, it can be concluded that Rublev’s victory is due to both physical and mental factors. The strength that the Russian showed during the match was accentuated in the third set. While Rune fell apart as soon as his rival began to come back and was not able to control his momentum.