Qatar Open 2024 continues to lose favorites at an alarming rate. If players of the caliber of Alejandro Davidovich, Roberto Bautista, Lorenzo Musetti or Lorenzo Sonego were bye in the first round, and Andy Murray was bye in the second round, This Thursday, it’s time for the first seed, Andrey Rublev.
The only top 10 of the tournament was surpassed by this week’s great revelation in Qatari lands, Jakub Mensik. The 18-year-old Czech, one of the world’s greatest under-20 talents and a candidate to challenge Alcaraz, Sinner and Rune and for the tennis throne in the next decade, achieved the biggest victory of his short career after winning 6-4, 7-6 in a truly great match where he showed a poise and composure unbecoming of a tennis player of his age.
His solidity on serve meant that a single break was enough for him to score in the first roundin front of a powerless Rublev unable to withstand the power of his rival’s punches.
The second set was very even and, this time, the chances of the break were frequent in both directions, although neither of the two achieved any of them.
This led to a tiebreak, with Rublev gaining a slight advantage that seemed to be enough to take the match to a third set. however, What we saw was a very brave Mensik who acted like a true veteran and knew how to close out a game without shaking his legsto the frenzy of the public that by then the stands of the center court were filling up.
“What can I say? It’s been an incredible week from the start. I played very well. I know I can play with these great players. For me it was an incredible feeling to reach the semifinals, defeating great players. For me it was an incredible feeling. “I feel very good,” declared a euphoric Mensik at the foot of the court.
Rublev was the third victim of the giant killer Mensik, who beat Davidovich on Tuesday and Murray on Wednesday in the best match so far in the tournament.
His final obstacle to reaching Saturday’s grand final is Gael Monfilswho defeated Ugo Humbert 6-3, 6-4 in the French duel that closed the day.
The first semi-final will face the now big favorite, Karen Khachanovwho benefited from the abandonment of Emil Ruusuvuori after just three games, and the Australian Alexei Popyrinwho provided another surprise of the day by defeating the hot but always unpredictable Alexander Bublik by doubles 6-4.
Source: La Verdad
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