WHAT HAPPENED: No. 5 seed Andrey Rublev beat Pedro Martinez amid the stops and starts of a rainy Wednesday afternoon for a spot in the 2021 US Open third round for the fourth time in five years.
Despite a 45-minute delay getting on the Grandstand—and then a half-hour stoppage late in the second set—the 23-year-old Russian stayed mentally locked in and on target for a 7-6, 6-7, 6-1, 6-1 win over the Spaniard.
Except for the second-set hiccup when he failed to convert on three set points, the 2017 and 2020 Flushing Meadows quarterfinalist dominated behind a big forehand and even bigger serve.
The right-hander crushed 67 winners and blasted 18 aces in the match that lasted just a little under three hours. Rublev lost serve only once, in his very first service game, and faced just six break points in total. He won 58 of 70 points on his first serve.
There were, however, moments of frustration and tension in putting away the No. 75 Martinez, who was playing in his second US Open.
Rublev lost the first three games of the match. He angrily pounded his leg with his racquet to wake up. It worked. Martinez served for the set at 5-3 but was broken. Rublev took the tiebreak 7-2, finishing with a blistering forehand for his 18th winner of the stanza.
He then let the 69-minute second set slip away despite holding three set points on Martinez’s serve in the 10th and 12th games. Martinez took the tiebreak 7-5. Rublev struggled to harness his groundstrokes, committing 19 unforced errors.
But Rublev put that setback behind him, racing through the next two sets to beat the Spaniard and the expected late-day rainstorms.
WHAT IT MEANS: Rublev was only 19-years-old when he made his first US Open quarterfinals. Since then, the lanky Russian has established himself as a big-stage player. He has made the final eight at the French Open (2020) and Australian Open (2021) and the fourth round at Wimbledon (2021).
MATCH POINT: A dangerous third-round match-up is next as Rublev awaits the winner between American favorite Frances Tiafoe and Argentine veteran Guido Pella. If it is Tiafoe, will Rublev be able to quiet the big-hitting American and the sure-to-be partisan crowd?
