Russian Andrey Rublev secured his ticket to the final tournament of the year Nitto ATP Finals

In the quarterfinals of the Rolex Shanghai Masters, an Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) tournament in the Masters 1000 category with a prize fund of $8.8 million, the seventh racket of the world, Russian Andrey Rublev, beat Frenchman Hugues Humbert in two sets. After this, the last doubts disappeared that Rublev, following another Russian, Daniil Medvedev, who had done this earlier, would be able to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals – the final tournament of the year, which will be held from November 11 to 19 in Turin. Since the beginning of the season, Rublev has already scored more than 4,000 rating points, and this, based on the experience of past years, guarantees him a place in the eight strongest tennis players in the world.

The Chinese Masters 1000 championship, which was not held for the previous three seasons due to the coronavirus pandemic, somehow very quickly lost its main favorites. Previous champion Daniil Medvedev, brilliantly victorious in Shanghai in 2019, this time already in the 1/16 finals he lost to the American Sebastian Korda, and the Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, who headed the “seeding,” retreated a circle later, losing to the Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov.

The only tennis player from the top ten of the ATP rankings to make it to the quarterfinals of the Rolex Shanghai Masters was Russian Andrei Rublev, who before the start of the tournament was ranked seventh in the world classification.

First, the Russian beat the Frenchmen Quentin Alice and Andrian Mannarino in two sets, and then the American Tommy Paul. His next opponent was again the representative of France – the 34th racket of the world, Hugo Amber, and despite the difference in ranking, this match was considered difficult for Rublev. The fact is that at the beginning of the month in Beijing, Amber got the better of him in a tiebreaker in the decisive game, and the overall score of their meetings in the main draws of ATP tournaments was equal – 2:2.

However, in this case, Rublev managed to confirm his class. Having coped with the pressure of the French left-hander at the very beginning of the match, in an hour and a half he won a very convincing victory – 6:2, 6:3, having made three breaks and losing his serve only once.

Although there is no official information from the ATP on this matter yet, it is already clear that this victory has finally removed all doubts about Rublev’s entry into the Nitto ATP Finals, the final tournament of the year, which will be held in a month in Turin.

After all, the Russian has surpassed the mark of 4,000 rating points scored since the beginning of the season. Now he has 4035 points, and in the history of the ATP there has never been a case where a tennis player with such a respectable rating sum remained outside the top eight. At the moment, in the ATP Race – the classification that is taken into account when selecting for the final tournament, Rublev is fifth, noticeably ahead of the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas (3615 points) with Alexander Zverev from Germany (3415), and the Dane Holger Rune (3110) with American Taylor Fritz (2965), who ranks ninth and does not yet make it to Turin.

Thus, it can be considered that Rublev, who has not missed the Nitto ATP Finals since 2020 and last season advanced from the group to the semi-finals, following Serbian Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev and Italian Jannik Sinner, has guaranteed himself participation in this competition. Moreover, already on Sunday, Russians have the opportunity to formally obtain a Turin voucher. This will happen if he wins the Rolex Shanghai Masters, winning his third title this season.

Although this task cannot be called very easy. In the semi-finals, Rublev will face the experienced Grigor Dimitrov, world number 19, who is playing his best tennis in months and has won three of their previous six matches on hard court against the Russian. The other pair of semi-finalists were Pole Hubert Hurkacz (17th in the world) and Sebastian Korda (26th). Rublev has a draw in meetings with the Polish tennis player (2:2), but in matches against the American he won twice and never lost.

Evgeniy Fedyakov