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The adventure ofItaly in the final of ATP Cup against the Russia begins with a defeat. In the first match of the day, played in indoor conditions on the “Rod Laver Arena” due to the rain, Andrey Rublev He defeated Fabio Fognini with a score of 6-1 6-2 in an hour and a minute of play: the Russian tennis player, class of ’97, therefore leads the selection led by Evgeny Donskoy on 1-0.
In a few minutes it will be up to Daniil Medvedev e Matteo Berrettini, with the Roman player who will have to take home the match at all costs to center the draw and postpone the verdict to the decisive double (at the moment the players involved in this match would be Bolelli / Vavassori on the one hand and Karatsev / Donskoy on the other, but the two captains have the possibility to shuffle the cards on the table until a few minutes before the actual start of the challenge).
PRIMO SET – Start of an overflowing match for Rublev: the current number eight of the ATP ranking is unplayable both on serve and in return and Fognini is unable in any way to find the means suitable to counter his aggressive tennis. The tennis player from Arma di Taggia, victorious in five of the previous six with Rublev (last victory in Beijing in September 2019), immediately finds himself forced to chase due to the lost service at fifteen in the second game: the blue, which cancels a chance of a double break at 0-3, he finally capitulates in the sixth game, giving up the bar again. Rublev, at this point, has no problem in archiving the fraction with the score of 6-1 in just twenty-five minutes: the Russian has proved decidedly more solid than Fognini on duty, having lost just four points out of twenty ( won 8/10 with the first and 8/10 with the second), and compared to the Italian he closed the set with a positive balance between winners and errors (10-3, 3-11 instead for Fognini).
SECOND SET – The second fraction generally follows what happened in the previous part: Rublev continues to push every ball, Fognini is very wrong by not being able to find the right measures to contain the accelerations of his challenger. The break occurs in the third game, when Fognini first commits a painful double foul on 30-30 and then places a serious free mistake with the backhand, thus giving Rublev the break. From 2-1 for the Russian, in fact they stop playing: entered the crucial phase, Fognini badly loses the bar to zero in the seventh game (committing another double foul at the opening) finding himself 5-2 down. Called to close with the service available, Rublev does not let himself be caught unprepared: four more hammers and is 6-2.
ITALY – RUSSIA 0-1
Andrey Rublev (RUS) b. Fabio Fognini (ITA) 6-1 6-2
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