December 22, 2024
Russian Andrey Rublev on Sunday won his second title of the season at Bastad with a straight sets win over top seed Casper Ruud.
The second seed won through 7-6 (7/3), 6-0 against the Norwegian world number four for his 14th career title and second this season after the Monte Carlo Masters in April.
Rublev dropped just one set en route to the title, he played with superb explosivity striking the ball cleanly on both sides of the court winning 80% of his first serve points in just over an hour and a half.
It is his 18th tour-level clay win of the season and improves his head-to-head to 5-2 against Ruud. He is now up to fourth in the Race to Turin as he boosts his ATP Finals hopes with a superb week in Sweden.
He now heads to Hamburg European Open aiming to continue that form with Ruud and also Alexander Zverev also playing in Germany.
Usually Ruud hoovers up these tournaments and he has also had a superb week after a poor Wimbledon so a lot to savour for both.
In an interesting stat too, Rublev’s win percentage now sits at 66.7% in ATP events on clay. It is the highest win percentage among his compatriots on the surface in the open era.
One of those was a maiden ATP 1000 title in Monte-Carlo also on the clay and he resumes his clay court excellence into the European part of the season.
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