The semi-finals of the Canadian super tournaments were held with the participation of Russians. On Monday evening, August 12, Andrei Rublev and Diana Schneider competed for the decisive stage in Montreal and Toronto, respectively.
On Centre Court, Andrei Rublev (8) was the first to fight for the final, facing Matteo Arnaldi (46). The tennis players met for the third time; before that, the score in their match was equal (1-1). The last time Andrei and Matteo played at Roland Garros, the Italian won (7-6 (8-6), 6-2, 6-4).
At the Montreal Masters, Rublev has already made a decent run of form. He beat Thomas Martin Etcheverry, Brandon Nakashima and world number one Jannik Sinner. Arnaldi also showed resilience at this tournament, defeating Mackenzie MacDonald, Karen Khachanov, Alejandro Davidovich-Fokina and Kei Nishikori.
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The match between Rublev and Arnaldi started with a good pace and playing at quite high speeds. Both preferred to act on the defensive line and knock out their opponents with powerful shots in the corners. Both tennis players looked very good in the first game, but everything was decided with a break of Rublev in the third game. Then, although Arnaldi fought back with a score of 0:30 to 30:30, his lack of a stable winning serve and the presence of a strong game on the part of his opponent led to the fact that already in the first half of the set the advantage passed into the hands of the Russians.
At the end of the set, Andrey started to get a little nervous and complain about boxing technique, because he wanted to finish the set as quickly as possible, but the Italian started to save himself with his serve, which he successfully managed to do, and unpredictably for his opponent he changed rotations and directions. With the score 3:5, for example, Matteo confidently took his game only thanks to his serve. But he could no longer hold on to the game and Rublev won the first set in 37 minutes with a score of 6:4.
Andrei Rublev
Photo: Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images
At the start of the second game, Arnaldi tried to get closer to the break, winning the first two points on Rublev’s serve, but Andrey got out of this situation with an excellent forehand game and did not give up the advantage. Immediately after, the game was interrupted due to rain and the tennis players were able to return to the court only after an hour and a half.
Rublev then allowed his opponent to take only one of his own games, after which he took five mini-games in a row. Arnaldi had much fewer successful attacks and his trump card, the serve, was no longer unbreakable. The score began to depend heavily on the Russian’s mistakes and sharp actions. Andrey took the last game of his service to love.
In the end, the match took 1 hour and 17 minutes, not taking into account the break, and the score was 6:4, 6:2. During the match, Rublev scored 17 winners, 12 of which came from his forehand. Andrey’s serve was also good: he hit 65% of the balls first and won 79% of them. Arnaldi, for example, showed the same service rates: 49% and 65%, respectively.
Rublev has never won in Montreal before, but now he will compete for the title here, returning to sixth place in the ATP rankings and winning the second Masters of the season. Andrey’s rival in the decisive battle will be Australian Alexei Popyrin.
At that time, in Toronto, Diana Schneider (24) was fighting for the final. Her opponent was the American and current champion of the tournament Jessica Pegula (6). The girls met for the first time. And they showed an excellent game.
From the very first matches, the players engaged in a fierce battle. They chased each other around the court, trying to force each other and knock them out with powerful blows. At first, Schneider kept up this pace perfectly, taking her opponent’s first serve to zero. The Russian took the lead 2-0, but unfortunately, already in the third game she made a mistake and allowed Pegula to counterattack.
Diana also tried to hold her serve in this game, but again in the seventh game, in a difficult situation, she gave the advantage to her opponent. The Russian made mistakes with her forehand and her movement around the court worsened a bit. Jessica took advantage of this and took the first set 6:4. As for the unforced ones, Schneider was noticeably behind Pegula: the Russian had 13, while the American had only 6.
Diana Schneider
Photo: Mert Alper Dervis/Anadolu via Getty Images
In the second match, the tennis players continued their intense fight. Pegula’s game was not perfect in this match, but Schneider still made some unnecessary mistakes, especially when playing forehand. In the sixth game, Diana thanks to her active actions achieved a break point, but she could not convert it, making an offensive mistake during a good attack. Then the Russian came out to serve, but at the wrong moment, on a break point of the American, she allowed a double. The advantage in the score completely went to Jessica’s side.
Schneider provided excellent resistance in this match. Until the last rally of about 20 strokes, Diana fought, but inaccuracies did not allow her to achieve victory. Pegula won 6:4, 6:3.
Despite the defeat, Schneider can add this “thousand” to her personal list of successes. In Toronto, Diana reached the semi-finals of a WTA-1000 tournament for the first time, scored her first win over a top-10 player (Corey Gauff) and also had the opportunity to make her debut in the top 20 of the rankings. Pegula will now try to defend last year’s title in the final match against Amanda Anisimova.
The Toronto and Montreal tournaments will conclude on Monday, August 12. Follow all the events in Canada on the “Championship.”
