Andrey Rublev is back on the courts and the Russian is back into another quarter-final, one against Alexander Zverev at the 2023 Bastad Open.
Rublev last played at Wimbledon recently and despite having a really solid year, the Russian opted against a summer vacation. He travelled to Sweden to take part in the Bastad Open where he had a 1st round bye. In the second round, Rublev took on compatriot Pavel Kotov who worked his way into the Top 100 this year, a rather remarkable development for his career.
Kotov certainly gave Rublev some issues even though the Russian was able to keep the match in two sets which was the goal. The first set saw Rublev overcome the loss of serve by breaking Kotovo twice en route to a 6-3 opening set finish.
He was very dominant in the rallies not giving his opponent too much. The second set was a bit different as Kotov proved why he’s in the Top 100 jumping out to an early lead against his compatriot. With a 5-2 lead, Kotov seemed in a great position to win the set however Rublev mounted a stellar comeback.
We’ve seen him turn around matches like this in the past though it’s become much more common in recent years. He battled back to make it 5-5 but couldn’t quite avoid playing the tiebreak. It didn’t matter much as Rublev outplayed his opponent easily in the tiebreak 7-4 to close out the match in two sets.
The final score was 6-3 7-6(4) for Rublev who played a pretty solid match overall. He will now face good friend Alexander Zverev for a spot in the final after the German brutally defeated Thiago Monteiro earlier today.
The first match for Rublev since the Wimbledon exit and a good one. He needed one after the way he lost to Djokovic.
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