Andrey Rublev won the Easter roulette – Newspaper Kommersant No. 66 (7511) of 04/17/2023

The champion of the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters – the Masters 1000 tournament of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) in Monaco with a prize fund of € 5.8 million – became the Russian Andrey Rublev, who outplayed 19-year-old Dane Holger Rune in the final in three games. This is the first victory of the sixth racket of the world in such a representative competition, and for the second year in a row Rublev takes titles at Easter.

Before the beginning of this completely unpredictable final, tennis fans, of course, recalled the amazing match between Andrey Rublev and Holger Rune, which was played in January in the fourth round of the Australian Open. Then the Russian first lost in the fifth game – 2:5, then won back two match points on his serve with a score of 5:6, then lagged behind in the super tie-break – 0:5, but in the end he still managed to win a heroic victory. And someone else might remember that last year, also on Easter, Rublev celebrated one of the brightest triumphs in his career, beating in the final of the clay tournament in Belgrade of Novak Djokovic himself.

On Saturday in Monaco, the weather deteriorated for the umpteenth time in recent days, and therefore the three-set semi-finals, in which Rublev met Taylor Fritz, and Rune met Yannick Sinner, had to be interrupted due to rain. As a result, the meeting between the Dane and the Italian ended at about 21.45, when there were about 17 hours left before the final. That is, the 19-year-old tennis player found himself in the same difficult situation as two days earlier Daniil Medvedev, who entered the Friday quarter-finals against Rune after an evening victory won on Thursday in a big fight over Alexander Zverev.

True, it could not be ruled out that the good physical condition of the young, well-built Danish all-rounder, capable of performing brilliantly both on clay and on hard, could negate the hypothetical advantage of Rublev, who had more time to recover.

Moreover, Rune, who has a high-quality twisted forehand and good sports impudence, unlike the Russian, already had a positive experience of participating in such prestigious finals. Last November, he managed to stop Djokovic in the decisive match of a similar competition in Paris. Rublev, on the other hand, lost both of his previous “masterful” finals in 2021 – to Stefanos Tsitsipas also in Monte Carlo and Alexander Zverev in Cincinnati. That is, these tournaments remained for him as impregnable as the semi-finals of the Grand Slam championships, where he had not yet been.

The first batch as a whole was absolutely equal. Rublev made fewer mistakes and had more break points, but Rune had a little more initiative in the shootouts on the back line and acted more effectively. In the sixth game, two impeccable short shots allowed the Dane to take someone else’s pitch. The Russian immediately made a return break, but in the twelfth game, Rune hit the line with the score at 30:30, forcing the opponent to make a mistake, after which Rublev sent the ball out with a right hand after a sharp reception.

In the second set, the situation changed dramatically. After an early exchange of innings, the Russian completely took over the advantage. In four games played starting with a score of 2:2, the Dane was able to take only four points in total, and the first doubts appeared whether he was tired? In any case, the speed that Rune showed at the beginning of the meeting was not visible to him in those minutes.

The third party turned out to be the most interesting. Both opponents played with differences, and Rublev, like three months ago in Melbourne, again had to catch up. Having allowed Runa to make a break in the second game, he was 30:40 behind with the score 1:4 on his serve, but then an ace cut through in time. And in the next, seventh game, the emotional Dane made two double faults, and soon the score was evened. Exhausted, Rune continued to take risks, but when it seemed that a tie-break could no longer be avoided, the denouement came. Having forced Rublev to go on the defensive at the beginning of the eleventh game, the Dane blundered twice when performing smashes, and made a double mistake on one of the break points. The Russian did not flinch, finishing the match with an ace with a score of 5:7, 6:2, 7:5 in 2 hours and 35 minutes.

At the award ceremony, the newly-made champion confused the Princess of Monaco with the president of the tennis federation of the principality, which amused Prince Albert II, who was standing nearby, but this oversight was of no fundamental importance.

Having won his 13th and most prestigious title of his career, Rublev, in addition to almost €900,000, received 1,000 ranking points – more than in the entire last clay season, and thanks to this he secured his sixth place in the world ranking. And according to the points scored this year, Rublev immediately rose from 12th place to fifth. Since January, he has already earned 1885 points, and at the moment he has excellent chances to play the final ATP tournament in Turin for the fourth time in a row.

Evgeny Fedyakov