WHAT HAPPENED: Andrey Rublev had two match points on his serve after almost four hours of grueling tennis in his US Open third-round match. He could not convert on either in the fifth set, and surrendered a break of serve to continue another marathon match in Flushing Meadows.
Almost 20 minutes later, and in the middle of the rollercoaster that comes with a final-set tiebreaker, Rublev got one more opportunity to close out the match, and he made no mistake.
Rublev got the better of No. 19 seed Denis Shapovalov in the Grandstand, 6-4, 2-6, 6-7 (3), 6-4, 7-6 (7), in a contest worthy of “match of the tournament” status. Shapovalov saved two match points at 5-4 on Rublev’s serve and eventually forced the final-set breaker.
Rublev won the first three points of the deciding tiebreaker before Shapovalov won the next three, but the No. 12 seed opened up another healthy margin that the Canadian could not overcome.
“Obviously it was a crazy match. Obviously Denis deserved to win as well, as we all know,” Rublev said post-match. “Both of us deserved to win. [After] you play these kinds of matches, there is no winner, in my opinion.”
Sorry, Andrey, but there had to be a winner. And today, that was you!
Here’s how the first four set played out:
The first nine games of the match were won by the server, but Rublev finally made inroads on the Shapovalov serve... or, more accurately, Shapovalov provided Rublev the opportunity to make inroads, as two double faults led to Rublev grabbing the break that put an end to the opening set.
Rublev was close to riding that momentum to a commanding lead in the second, as he held in his opening service game and created a break point on return. The Canadian, however, escaped to hold serve, winning the first of five consecutive games to put a stranglehold on the second set.
Shapovalov also escaped a key break chance for Rublev in the third—one that would have given the latter the set—at 5-6, 30-40. Shapovalov closed the game with an ace, then eased to a 7-3 win in the tiebreak.
Rublev earned the crucial break of the fourth set at 4-all, then saved two break points to close out the stanza and set up the grandstand finish on the Grandstand.
WHAT IT MEANS: Rublev began his 2022 US Open with a five-setter, blowing a two-set lead before finally winning the decider, 6-4, in taking down Laslo Djere. In seven appearances in Flushing Meadows, Rublev has now made the Round of 16 on four occasions.
MATCH POINT: One of the two players was going to continue his history of playing well in the year’s final major, as Rublev is a two-time US Open quarterfinalist (2017, 2020) while Shapovalov has reached the third round in all six of his pro appearances in Flushing Meadows, reaching the quarters in 2020. Rublev now will have another stern test, and another lefty, waiting for him in the Round of 16, as he will face Great Britain’s Cameron Norrie on Monday.
