ANDREY Rublev ended Carlos Alcaraz’s bid to defend his Madrid Open title by beating the second seed 4-6, 6-3 and 6-2 in the quarter-final match, Wednesday (1/5).
Rublev, who is seeded seventh, has previously lost all five meetings against players ranked in the top 3 in the world and lost his only previous meeting with Alcaraz.
He also suffered four straight defeats before appearing at the Madrid Open.
However, in the quarterfinals of the Madrid Open, Rublev used his strong performance against Alcaraz to stun his world No. 3 opponent and advance to the semifinals of his seventh Masters 1000 tournament.
AFP/OSCAR DEL POZO—Russian tennis player Andrey Rublev
Alcaraz, who missed last month’s clay tournaments in Monte Carlo and Barcelona due to an arm injury, needed three sets to beat Jan-Lennard Struff in the fourth round.
In the quarter-finals, the Spaniard could not overcome Rublev as he bid to become the first man to win the Madrid Open three times in a row.
“I think my serve saved me in this match but I think the key to my victory was that I managed to stay calm throughout the match. I didn’t lose my temper even when I was behind,” said Rublev, who has now managed to win at least once over all the top 10 players in the world. At the moment. (AFP/Z-1)
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