Rublev defeated the Wimbledon champion in pairs! Andrei was the first of the Russians to reach the second round
Alexander Nasonov July 3, 2023, 14:57 Moscow time Audio version: Your browser does not support the audio element.
Our guy confidently won the match against Australian Max Purcell. A possible next opponent is Aslan Karatsev.
On Monday, July 3, the next Wimbledon began, the only Grand Slam tournament that takes place on grass. Today Andrei Rublev entered the fight, having received the seventh seed. Before Wimbledon, Rublev played only one tournament on grass. And he did pretty well. At the “five hundred” in Halle, the Russian reached the final, where he lost in three sets to Alexander Bublik from Kazakhstan.
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At Wimbledon, Andrei never broke the fourth round barrier. And he reached this stage only once, in 2021. In general, according to Rublev, he does not like grass, as it is too fast coverage. “Do I like the grass? Absolutely not. We need to make the grass slower so that you can draw,” Rublev said after defeating Felix Auger-Aliassime in an exhibition tournament in London.
Rublev’s rivals in the first round of Wimbledon turned out to be 25-year-old Australian representative Max Purcell. The game was settled by first pitch on Court 3, the fourth most important arena. This season, Purcell won just two matches at the main draw level of ATP tournaments, while suffering five losses, such disappointing stats he had before meeting Rublev. The Australian, who is ranked 64th in the world, often comes up in challenges, and not without success. This season he has already reached the final of tournaments in this category six times, three of which he won.
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In the majors, Max won just one main draw game during his career, at Roland Garros this year. But in doubles, Purcell already has great success. It was he who, together with his compatriot Matthew Ebden, won Wimbledon a year ago! So we can say that Rublev played with the current champion of the tournament, albeit in doubles. Until now, Andrey and Max have not met in the main draws, but in the qualifiers – twice, at the Australian Open-2017 and at Eastbourne-2019, the Russian turned out to be stronger.
At the start of the match, the opponents confidently won games on their serve. This is especially true of Purcell, who brought the second game to nil. But Rublev was the first to reach break points. In the sixth game, he went to a double break point and immediately converted it-4: 2. In the seventh game, the Russian himself saved himself, thus preventing the opponent from making a counterattack. Serving a set with a score of 5:3, Andrey brought the game to zero – 6:3 in just 30 minutes. At the same time, Rublev, who made errors quite often (11 unforced against the opponent’s seven), only had one ace per game, but his Australian opponent leaked five times.
In the second set, Purcell quickly seized the initiative. In the second game, he earned a triple break point and converted it on the third try, after which he brought his shot to nil-3:0. After the tennis players took two more games to serve, the score became 5:2 in favor of the Australian. And then Rublev really turned on! The Russian took the next five games, with four of them ending in nil! Thus, being one step away from defeat in the game, Andrey managed to turn the tide of events and won the set – 7:5 in 36 minutes.
At the beginning of the third delivery, the rivals exchanged breaks, and then Rublev again took someone else’s serve, after which, on his serve, bringing the game to zero, he recorded an advantage – 3: 1. In the next three games, the tennis players in his service also did not give themselves a single draw. And with the score 5:4, the Russian has already served for the match. Andrei got a double match point and used it on the second try: 6:3, 7:5, 6:4 in 1 hour and 35 minutes.
So Rublev was the first of all Russians to reach the second round of Wimbledon. At this stage, he can play Aslan Karatsev, if he beats Frenchman Luc van Asch today. Also today, Roman Safiullin will play 20th seed Roberto Bautista-Agut. Follow all the events in the “Championship”
