On Tuesday, July 23, three matches with the participation of Russian tennis players took place at ATP-250 tournaments in different parts of the world. Andrei Rublev played in Umag (Croatia), Pavel Kotov fought in Kitzbühel (Austria), and Aslan Karatsev took to the court in faraway Atlanta (USA). And if Kotov and Karatsev met in the first round, then Rublev, the top seed in Umag, entered the fight from the second round. But first things first.
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The toughest opponent was Kotov, who is ranked 62nd in the ATP rankings. The Russian played with the former sixth and now 50th player in the world, Matteo Berrettini, who is slowly returning to his previous level. Berrettini, the 2021 Wimbledon finalist, did not even make it to the 2023 final, but has already won two clay court titles this season, namely Marrakech and Gstaad.
Kotov started the match with a break and then held serve for a while, but in the eighth game he could not hold on. Berrettini stubbornly clung to every opportunity and after five “exactly” third break points restored equality: 4-4. The Italian may not have taken the matter to a tie-break, but in the tenth game he missed a set point on reception. In the 13th game Kotov had a set point on reception at 6:5, but did not take advantage of it. But Berrettini did not miss his goal in a similar situation: 7:6 (8:6) in 1 hour and 9 minutes.
In the second game, Matteo’s serve flew incredibly, and the fact that Pavel managed to achieve only the tie-break is worthy of respect. In his six matches, Berrettini lost only two points. However, the main thing is not even this, but the fact that the Italian gave 100% success on the first serve. The only time he needed a second was in the tie-break. Kotov escaped a break point in the third game, but in the tie-break he allowed his opponent to take advantage of the first match point on reception: 7:6 (8:6), 7:6 (7:5) in 2 hours 17 minutes.
Karatsev fought with qualifier Billy Harris. There is currently not a very big gap between them in the world rankings: the Russian is ranked 107th and the Briton 114th. However, in reality, the Russians had an overwhelming advantage. In his four games of the first set, Aslan lost two points. After making two breaks, Karatsev served to love in the eighth game (6-2 in 30 minutes).
Karatsev started the second set with a break, in the fifth game he again took his opponent’s serve, in the seventh he missed two match points on the return and in the eighth he served for the match – 6:2, 6:2. 41 minutes. During the entire match, Aslan served six times and his opponent served three times. At the same time, Karatsev did not make a single double fault, and Harris made four errors on serve.
Karatsev thus broke a series of four defeats that began at the Rome Masters, or five, if we take into account Wimbledon 2024, where Aslan retired during the match with Karen Khachanov. In the second round, Karatsev will face the American Francis Tiafoe (3), the number 29 racket in the world.
And Rublev, the ninth player in the world, took to the court alongside Argentine Camilo Hugo Carabelli, number 96 in the ATP rankings. Andrei came to this match with a four-match losing streak – it was clearly time to break it. Before the tournament, the second Russian player admitted that he had spoken with two-time Grand Slam champion Marat Safin and told him how to get rid of psychological problems.
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The main thing in this match for Rublev was to avoid a psychological breakdown again. And he coped with this task. Yes, in the first set Andrei sometimes got nervous when the rallies did not end the way he wanted. However, he did not allow his emotions to drag him into this vicious circle, even though Karabelli was the first to take the game on reception. Rublev made a reverse break (3:3) and at the end of the game took the set, after the Argentinean made two double faults in the tenth game (6:4 in 46 minutes).
In the second set, Rublev immediately took Karabella’s serve, but the latter made a reverse break and then equalized the score 2-2. The Russian took the remaining games on his serve more confidently than the Argentine. In the reception, Andrey achieved his goal only in the 12th game. The Russian used the first match point in the reception, skillfully shortening it: 6:4, 7:5 in 1 hour 47 minutes. Having won the decisive point, Rublev crossed himself.
In the quarter-finals, Rublev will face either Hungarian Fabian Marozsand or Brazilian Thiago Monteiro.
The tournaments in Kitzbühel and Umag will end on July 27th and the competition in Atlanta on July 28th. Follow all the events of the “Championship”.
