Andrey Rublev got into a competitive environment – Newspaper Kommersant No. 162 (7363) dated 09/05/2022

At the US Open, which has approached its equator in New York, Andrey Rublev continues to advance in the lower half of the grid. After a hard-fought victory in the third round in the fifth game tie-break over Canadian Denis Shapovalov, the Russian will face British No. 1 Cameron Norrie. This game is very important for both opponents. Not only is a ticket to the quarterfinals at stake, but Rublev and Norrie are direct competitors for a place in the top eight of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) rating, which means the right to play at the final tournament of the year in Turin.

The US Open has always been a big deal in terms of qualifying for the Nitto ATP Finals. And in the last three years, its importance in this regard has become even higher, because in connection with the coronavirus pandemic in Shanghai, the Chinese stage of the Masters 1000 series has been canceled for the third year in a row, and major tournaments that could fundamentally affect the position in the top ten, there is very little left in autumn.

At the moment, only Rafael Nadal, who scored almost 6,000 rating points this year, has officially issued a ticket to Turin. However, de facto, in fact, the Spaniard Carlos Alcaras and the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, who have overcome the mark of 4500 points, can also feel calm. They will get to Nitto ATP Finals for sure. But at least 12 people actually claim the remaining five places in the top eight of the final rating. And if the Norwegian Kasper Ruud and Daniil Medvedev are not expected to have global problems with getting to Turin, then, for example, nothing is clear with Andrei Rublev. He has earned less than 3,000 points since January, which is clearly not enough.

True, the first week of the US Open was unsuccessful for several of Rublev’s competitors. In the early stages, Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime, Pole Hubert Hurkacz and American Taylor Fritz dropped out. To them should be added the German Alexander Zverev, who missed the last major of the season due to a serious leg injury received at Roland Garros, and, of course, the Serb Novak Djokovic, who was not allowed to enter America due to the lack of a coronavirus vaccination. However, a group of other potential participants in the Turin Asia-Pacific summit is still in the ranks, and at the moment the most serious threat to Rublev is Briton Cameron Norrie. On his account this year about 2300 points, more than 500 points less than the Russian. But after all, the price of their upcoming confrontation in the 1/8 finals is very high: 180 points are at stake right away. The winner will also qualify for an increase of at least 360 more points, which relies on winning the quarterfinals. Therefore, it is extremely important for Rublev to beat the Briton.

Apparently, the Russian will face a serious test of strength. The score of his previous personal meetings with Norrie is a draw (1:1), but in New York the Briton looks clearly more confident so far. In three matches, Norrie did not give up a single set, and on Saturday he beat the Dane Holger Rune in just over two hours, while Rublev was still in the first round, fighting with the Serb Laszlo Dzhere, had problems, and to defeat the Canadian Denis Shapovalov on a super-tie-break to ten points in the fifth game, it took him more than four hours.

Emotionally, this may have been the brightest match of the men’s bracket so far. The Canadian left-hander was leading after three sets, at the end of the fourth game Rublev pulled out an epic ten-minute game on his serve, and in the fifth game the Russian missed three match points, serving at a score of 5:4. Nevertheless, in the last draw, Rublev, at the cost of incredible moral efforts, still managed to force himself to take a successful risk and make his opponent make a mistake. The advantage for the Russian is that in terms of playing style, Norrie differs from Shapovalov to about the same extent as Roger Federer differs from Rafael Nadal. Wimbledon semi-finalist Norrie is a right-hander who knows how to play the ball on the back line, but does not have the same sharpness as Shapovalov. But Rublev knows how to play with tennis players of this kind. The main thing is to avoid unnecessary troubles, since nerve endings are always a lottery, and it is extremely difficult to pull them out twice in a row.

Evgeny Fedyakov