Rublev beats Fritz and reaches the final of the Madrid Open

Madrid. The Russian Andrey Rublev became the first finalist of the Madrid Masters 1000 this Friday after beating the American Taylor Fritz 6-4, 6-3.

Rublev separated Fritz, world number 13, in one hour and twelve minutes to reach his fifth Masters 1000 final, the first in Madrid.

In Sunday’s final, the Russian will face the winner of the match that will take place this Friday afternoon against the Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime and the Czech Jiri Lehecka, who eliminated Rafa Nadal.

“It was a very difficult match, we both felt the pressure,” said Rublev, after the match on the center court of the Caja Mágica.

The Russian, who eliminated world number three Carlos Alcaraz in the quarterfinals on Wednesday, started the match a little nervous.

Rublev, 26, gave up serve in the first game, but reacted immediately in the next with a counterbreak to tie the match at 1-1.

The two maintained their serve until reaching 5-4 in favor of the Russian, in which Rublev was able to break his rival’s serve again to take the set with a blank game from Fritz.

In the second set, Rublev, who was very firm with his serve, took advantage of his third ball of break in the sixth game to break his rival’s serve and take a 4-2 lead.

It was enough for the world number eight to maintain his serve to close the match with a 6-3 blank game.

Rublev, the only world Top-10 still in contention, now aspires to win his second Masters 1000 title, after winning the title in Monte Carlo last year.

The Russian, who had arrived in Madrid after four consecutive defeats, has managed to turn around his season in the Caja Mágica with five wins to aspire to his first title in the capital of Spain.

“It’s the good thing about our sport, about tennis, that one week can change everything,” Rublev said after the match.

His qualification for the final already ensures that he will rise to seventh place in the ATP rankings on Monday and, in case of victory, he will be sixth in the world, one place away from the best place of his career, achieved in September 2021.