For years, Andrey Rublev found Daniil Medvedev to be an insoluble puzzle. The Russian duo first crossed swords as professionals at a challenger event in Budapest five years ago, where Medvedev prevailed in straight sets. It was the same story when they met in the last eight at Cincinnati three years later. Three further quarter-finals would come and go for Rublev, including matches at the US and Australian Opens, with each one producing the same dispiriting result for the world No 7. But like a student retaking a particularly tricky exam, Rublev kept coming back for more. On Saturday, he finally passed, ending Medvedev’s eight-match unbeaten streak with a 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory to reach the final of the Cincinnati Masters.
“It’s always tough to play against Daniil, and to beat him gives me more confidence that I can compete against him,” said the fourth-seeded Rublev, who will face Alexander Zverev in his second Masters final of the season. “There’s still so many things to improve, but it’s like you pass university and they give you the diploma.”
For a set, Rublev looked bound for failure again. An early break put Medvedev in the driving seat, and when the top seed wrapped up the opener in just 38 minutes to extend his opponent’s miserable record of having never previously won a set against him, there seemed little prospect of an upset. Medvedev had won his previous six matches in straight sets, a sequence dating back to the semi-finals of last week’s title-winning run at the Toronto Masters. Given the Russian’s rich vein of form, it was almost unimaginable he could falter against a man he had so often dominated. Rublev, however, had other ideas; so long as the rallies remained keenly contested, he was not about to lose heart.
“Inside I was thinking, even when I was 6-2 [down], the score shouldn’t be like this, because the points were so tight,” said Rublev afterwards. “It was just some little mistakes, some good shots from Daniil. The score was not real, the first set. Even the third set, I won 6-3, but the match was so intense, you could see so many rallies, so many long rallies. It was super tough. Super mental match, super physical match – exactly like a chess match.”
If anyone was prepared for such a contest, it was surely Rublev. The Russian has surmounted all manner of obstacles this week, seeing off Marin Cilic in three sets in his opener before subduing Gael Monfils in a match notable for two tiebreaks and some feisty verbal pyrotechnics. All that was before Rublev even got to the suddenly in-form Benoît Paire, against whose kaleidoscopic array of moods and shots he eventually prevailed in another contest that went the distance. This was a Rublev ready to rumble.
He was helped by a bizarre incident early in the second set. Racing to chase down one of Rublev’s numerous firecracker forehands, Medvedev collided with a TV camera at the back of the court. Having hurt both his hands, he kicked the offending camera in a manner redolent of the infamous boot John McEnroe aimed at an encroaching camera in Philidelphia in 1985. Medvedev does much of his best work from deep behind the baseline and, on a stadium court that is smaller than many, it was not the first time this week that he has had cause to complain about the camera’s positioning. A medical timeout followed, during which Medvedev muttered darkly about suing the tournament. He was fit to continue, but he was clearly rattled.
Ignoring Medvedev’s irritation, Rublev stuck single-mindedly to his task and was rewarded with a break in the eighth game, a mini epic that lasted a quarter of an hour, spanning eight deuces and five break points. That was enough to give Rublev the set, and he made another vital breakthrough in the seventh game of the decider as Medvedev lapsed into error.
“Medvedev is one of those players who won’t give you a chance to attack, but if I have enough power and choose the right moment, I have to be the one to make him run,” said Rublev. “In the end, I was trying to find the perfect moment to start being more aggressive to open the angles.”
The Russian will face a different test against Zverev, who came out with all guns blazing against Stefanos Tsitsipas before overcoming illness and a determined fightback from the Greek to prevail 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (7-4). Zverev, who landed a remarkable 81% of his first serves in the opening set, took an early lead when a sumptuous backhand pass gave him the platform for a break in the fifth game. As has been his habit of late, Tsitsipas then left the court for an eight-minute comfort break – much to the annoyance of Zverev, who complained to the umpire that his opponent could be receiving instructions by text message from his father Apostolos, who is also his coach.
Zverev’s level dropped in the second set. As the German’s forehand became wayward and he struggled to make his first serve with the same unerring regularity, barely hitting the 50% mark, Tsitsipas made hay. Having levelled the match, the Greek looked on course for a repeat of his semi-final victory over Zverev at the French Open, when he established a 4-1 lead in the decider. An upset stomach only added to the German’s woes but, despite having to leave the court to deal with nausea after securing a break, he clung on for victory.
“I didn’t feel well,” said Zverev, the Olympic champion, who has now won 10 matches in a row. “In the middle of the second set I felt low energy and my stomach wasn’t great. I broke him at 4-2 in the third and went outside the court and did my thing. I started to feel better, the doctor came out and gave me a little medicine and my stomach started to calm down a little. The energy came back, but I think that was also adrenaline.”
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