On Thursday, July 27, at the ATP-500 clay court tournament in Hamburg (Germany), matches of the 1/8 final are held. In one of the central games of the day, the seventh racket in the world was the Russian Andrey Rublev and the German Daniel Altmaier, who is now in position 61 in the men’s world ranking table.
Both Rublev and Altmaier have already shown good results on clay this season. First of all, this applies to the Russian, who won the title at the Monte Carlo Masters in April, so far this is the main trophy in Andrei’s career. Last weekend, the seventh racket in the world celebrated victory in the Båstad competition. It is noteworthy that in the battle for the trophy, the Russian even hung up the steering wheel to clay court fan Casper Ruud. As for the German, he won April’s clay-court Challenger in Sarasota, USA, and then surprised the tennis community with a superb performance at the Madrid Masters. In the Spanish “thousand”, the 24-year-old native of Kempen reached the quarter-final stage, losing only to the strong Borna Coric. It should be noted that the German only by chance entered the Madrid base, that is, as a lucky loser.
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There’s a new title! Rublev hung the steering wheel to the 4th racket in the world and became the champion of Båstad
It is worth noting that on the eve of the head-to-head debut, both rivals have already managed to hold a meeting in the German five hundred. And if for the owner of the courts the match ended with a victory in two sets (Daniel faced veteran Richard Gasquet – 7: 5, 6: 4), then the 25-year-old Moscow native in the first round gave a real thriller with a comeback. The famous Russian led in the first game against Spain’s Bernabé Zapata-Miralles by a score of 5:3, but then the 2020 Olympic champion in the mixed doubles literally fell in and the set went to his opponent: 7:5. It should be noted that Andriy immediately recovered, confidently taking the second game – 6: 1. Many expected Spain’s representative to completely collapse, but he wasn’t there! The opponents were match by match in the deciding set, and the outcome of the confrontation was decided in a tie-break. The Spaniard had three balls in the 13th game (two at 6-4 and one at 7-6, respectively), but Rublev’s phenomenal play in the decisive matches and the errors of the 26-year-old Valencian did not allow him to finish the match in his favor.
Rublev himself commented on the workers’ victory at the beginning of the German “five hundred”. “I had the feeling that everything was going well and the match was under my control, but for some reason I lost the first set, it bothered me. In the second set, I came back into the game, recovered mentally and won. The third game was difficult. I started to get tired and nervous because everything was going to a tiebreaker, and I didn’t have many chances to beat him. I had the feeling that I deserved to win. He fought like crazy. When I started to lose 0-3 in the tie-break, I was very nervous again. But then I won two incredible rallies and told myself to keep fighting in the same vein. It’s unbelievable that he was able to win,” Rublev was quoted as saying by the ATP press service.
Andrey’s magnificent performances, of course, could not go unnoticed among tennis officials. Russian Tennis Federation (FTR) President Shamil Tarpishchev praised the 2020 Olympic champion’s level in mixed doubles after his victory at the start in Hamburg. “Rublev has really improved this year, he has become more stable in the game. The presentation has improved. There’s not enough variability yet, but it’s actually in the top five in the world. In this year’s ranking, he is fourth, just behind Medvedev. This is objective,” Tarpishchev was quoted as saying by TASS.
Today’s match was clearly not under Rublev’s diktat. If at first the rivals took the games with confidence in their serve, then Russia’s first racket frankly began to go crazy. The 25-year-old Moscow native allowed his German opponent to make an early break in the game, although he could easily close out the third game of the set (he led 40-15). Altmaier, unsurprisingly, managed to take advantage of his opponent’s gift. Then, tennis players took games on his serve over and over again. But this isor it happened only until the score was 4:2 in favor of Daniel. The 24-year-old native Kempen once again broke his highest-profile opponent, reaching a comfortable 5:2 in the first set. At that moment, it became clear for sure: the owner of the courts will definitely not miss his own and will be able to complete what he started until the end. And so it happened: Altmaier served confidently for the game, leaving him behind with a score of 6:2.
Daniel Altmaier
Photo: Getty Images
The second set started for Rublev according to a similar scenario. Only this time, Olympic champion Tokyo in the mixed doubles allowed himself to break already at the beginning of the game. The German took a 2-0 lead and again separated from his opponent. No matter how hard the Russian tried, he couldn’t do anything with someone else’s service. In addition, in the 7th game, the Russian again lost his serve – 5: 2, and then Daniel Altmaier served for the match – 6: 2, 6: 2 in 1 hour and 12 minutes.
So Andrey Rublev could not continue the winning streak started in Båstad, stopping at five successful fights. The Russian failed to reach the quarterfinals of the five hundred in Hamburg, which was quite successful for him. In 2019, Andrey was a finalist here, and in 2020 he won the title. And Altmaier went further, defeating a top-10 player for the second time this season. It is curious that all three were extracted on clay: on Berrettini at Roland Garros-2020, Sinner at Roland Garros in 2023 and now on Rublev in Hamburg.
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There’s a new title! Rublev hung the steering wheel to the 4th racket in the world and became the champion of Båstad
So in the Hamburg men’s draw there is not a single Russian. But if Rublev was initially our only tennis player there, then in the women’s tournament of the 250 category, 4 representatives of Russia were listed in the group. Polina Kudermetova, Camilla Rakhimova and Maria Timofeeva lost in the first round, but Diana Schneider, having defeated Kudermetova and Austrian Julia Graber, reached the quarterfinals, and for the first time at the WTA level.
In the quarterfinal opponent, Diana got the third racket of the tournament, the American Bernarda Pera, who won in Hamburg last year. The girls had met only once before, and a week ago in Budapest. And then Schneider in the first round presented a surprise, eliminating the first seed from the net and defeating her in two sets. Now, at first, it looked like the Russian would win again, she took the 1st set so easily: 6:1 in 28 minutes. But in the second game, the American managed to turn the tide of the match and prevail almost as convincingly: 6: 2 in 31 minutes. In the third set, there was a stubborn and even fight, until finally, in the 9th game, the Russian managed a break – 5:4. Out of frustration, Bernarda broke her racket, throwing it onto the court. The serve for the set turned out to be stubborn: Diana did not convert the match ball, then repelled two break points from her opponent, but still on the second attempt converted the match ball -6: 1, 2: 6, 6: 4 in 1 hour and 48 minutes.
So Diana Schneider for the first time in her career reached the semifinals of the WTA tournament and on Friday she will play the 19-year-old German guest Noma Noah-Akugue, ranked 207th in the rankings. No matter how this fight ends, the Russian has already risen in the rankings by 15 positions and has entrenched herself in the top 100 in the 86 area, a record spot for her.
