Even Rublev can't stop Sinner

After the strong performance against Roberto Bautista Agut (ATP 11) The bar was raised for the young Sesto native on Friday. With Andrey Rublev, Sinner met the player who defeated Rafael Nadal the previous week, the player who has won the most matches and titles since the ATP tour was canceled due to corona and the player who in the current season has always made it to at least the quarter-finals. Unimpressed by these facts, Sinner beat the favorite Rublev 6:2 and 7:6.

Although Sinner certainly didn't show his best tennis at the start, he put an extremely flawed Rublev in great distress. He seemed tired, marked by the exertions of the last few weeks. The Russian made a ton of unforced errors and hardly created any pressure with his otherwise strong forehand. Sinner recognized this, reduced his own risk and largely left the 23-year-old from Moscow to dictate the game. This tactic proved to be profitable: Rublev never got going during the entire first set, gave up his serve twice and was unable to capitalize on three break chances. The result: A 6:2, which was well deserved. Sinner misses opportunities Rublev was also missing the last bit in the second half of the game. However, Sinner did not know how to take advantage of his counterpart's inattentiveness. Because the 19-year-old hardly left anything to burn with his own serve, he was able to approach his opponent's service games calmly. But it wasn't enough to break (at first) - also because Rublev started to serve much more precisely and therefore better. However, the Sesto was in no way inferior to him - on the contrary. Thanks to precise returns, Sinner finally got a groundbreaking break when the score was 3:3, but he gave it back straight away - and to zero.

Andrey Rublev didn't have his best day. © APA/afp / JOSEP LAGO

Sinner now took a short break and then struck back with great vehemence. He won seven points in a row, earned three break points at 5:5, but was unable to convert them. The South Tyrolean overcame this and fought his way into the tiebreak with a strong game. Sinner was already leading 4-1 and had two mini-breaks before Rublev came back and won a set point. The youngster fended this off with a sensational forehand and ended the match a few moments later with an ace.

Thanks to his fourth win against a top 10 player, Sinner climbs to position 18 in the world rankings, equaling Andreas Seppi's South Tyrolean all-time record. In the fight for his first ATP final on clay, Sinner will face Stefanos Tsitsipas (ATP 5) on Saturday. The Greek, currently number 5 in the world, defeated Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime 6:3, 6:3 in the quarterfinals.

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Even Rublev can't stop Sinner

Jannik Sinner, who was superior in all respects, defeated Andrey Rublev (ATP 500) in the quarterfinals of the ATP 7 tournament in Barcelona on Friday and thereby wrote South Tyrolean tennis history.

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