the russian Andrei Rublev will be a rival of kazakh alexander bublik in the final of the grass tournament Halle (Germany) after defeating, 6-3 and 6-4, the Spaniard Roberto Bautista in a close semifinal where he was more solid in a match that lasted one hour and 41 minutes.
The 2021 finalist of a tournament he entered as the third favorite and seventh-ranked tennis player in the world will seek his first grass-court title this Sunday in a season in which he managed to win the Monte Carlo Masters 1,000, the thirteenth trophy of his career. His rival was Alexander Bublik, who surprised the locals in the semifinals Alexander Zverevby 6-3 and 7-5.
The Russian showed his best tennis in the first set, where he was very accurate against others and, after several break opportunities, he managed to break the Spaniard’s serve twice. The first, in the third game of the semifinal and the second in the ninth, closing the first set 6-3 after 48 minutes of play.
Rublev also dominated his serve in that set, with 81% of points won on his first serve, and added sixteen winners to five of the veteran player from Castellón, 35 years old and number 23 on the ATP ranking.
The panorama changed at the beginning of the second sleeve. Bautista earned his lone break of the afternoon and then went up 2-0, although renewed urgency from the Russian allowed him to string together three straight games and take the lead on the scoreboard. At 4-4, the Spaniard had two chances to break the Muscovite’s serve, who added another gear to his serve and saved the situation.
And in the tenth game of the second set, Rublev went for the win. Bautista managed to save two match points, but was unable to convert the third, costing him the victory and denying him from adding his first victory of 2023.
Source: La Verdad
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