In this funny year 2020, Andrey Rublev can be proud of being the player to have won the most matches (37 for 7 losses), behind a certain Novak Djokovic (39, 3 losses).
Saturday in the semi-final in Vienna against Kevin Anderson, the 23-year-old Russian signed his 14th consecutive victory in a tournament on the circuit.
He benefited, it is true, from the abandonment of the South African victim of a pain in the thigh (6-4, 4-1).
However, we do not see many people at the moment on the circuit to stop the storm Rublev.
The Muscovite qualified in Austria for his fifth final of the year.
He has won the previous four (Doha, Adelaide, Hamburg, Hamburg and St. Petersburg) and will be the favorite against Lorenzo Sonego, the unlikely slayer of Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals.
In the last four tournaments, Rublev has only been defeated once, against Stefanos Tsitsipas in the quarter-finals at Roland Garros.
Dropped by his body in 2018
Excellent results which (almost) allow him to validate his qualification for the London Masters.
Asked by the ATP site, his compatriot and friend Daniil Medvedev, 6th in the world and great host at the end of the 2019 season, whispered: “Andrey actually reminds me a little of what I accomplished last year, speaking of the results, of course, but also of the way he plays.
When you get that kind of confidence, every close game seems to go the way you want it to. ”
Son of a former pro boxer, this Rafael Nadal fan, is a puncher who hits hard and grunts a lot on the courts.
We almost forget that the very thin redhead (1.88 meters for 68 kilos), is a featherweight in the elite of world tennis.
The current 8th in the world is however making up for lost time in this year unlike any other, disturbed by the Covid-19 crisis.
Winner of Roland-Garros juniors in 2014, he became in 2017, at the age of 19, the youngest quarter-finalist at the US Open since Andy Roddick in 2001, but the prodigy was then let loose by his body.
Victim of a stress fracture in the lower back in 2018, he broke his right wrist the following year and spent long months without playing.
"My serious back injury allowed me to ask myself the right questions, to know why I was playing tennis."
Andrey Rublev
The Russian recently told
Sport Express
how he made up for lost time:
“
I had a great time in 2017 when I got into the top 30. Then came the time for injuries.
There was also a lot of stress off the court, personal issues that I had to go through.
I realized that I had to face these problems on my own, try to solve them on my own.
And then my serious back injury allowed me to ask myself the right questions, to know why I was playing tennis.
The puzzle finally fell into place and that's what led to today's results, I'm sure. ”
Coached for four years by the Spaniard Fernando Vicente, former player and now director of an academy in Barcelona with Galo Blanco, Rublev is well launched to the top.
His compatriot Karen Khachanov, also trained in the past by Vicente and Blanco, won in 2018 at Bercy.
A sign ?
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