On Sunday, July 9, at Wimbledon, the men’s fourth round matches began. In one of the meetings, the seventh seed Andrey Rublev and the native of Gatchina Alexander Bublik (23), who has played under the Kazakhstan flag since 2016, met. Both Rublev and Bublik for the first time in this tournament had a match with A seeded tennis player. The Russian surpassed in the first circles the Australian Max Purcell, his compatriot Aslan Karatsev and the Belgian David Goffin (WC). And the representative of Kazakhstan defeated the likes of Mackenzie McDonald, Jeffrey-John Wolfe (both from the USA) and Maximilian Marterer (Q).
The previous meeting between Rublev and Bublik took place quite recently, on June 25, that is, exactly two weeks ago. In the final of the “five hundred” in Halle, Alexander beat Andrey in three sets (6:3, 3:6, 6:3). A lot was at stake for both tennis players and in a new confrontation. This is especially true for Bublik, who for the first time in his career reached the fourth round of the Grand Slam tournament and rushed to the quarterfinals with all his heart. Rublev is far from the first time he’s reached this stage in the majors. Besides, he has enough quarterfinals in his career. But it was at Wimbledon that Andrei never made the top eight.
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Rublev lost to Bublik in the Halle final. Will it be possible to get revenge at Wimbledon?
Why is the biggest grass the most difficult for Rublev? It is about disgust for adequate coverage. “I’d rather say I don’t like grass and win than say I like it and lose. I don’t like grass at all,” he said after defeating Aslan Karatsev in the second round of Wimbledon. It remains to add that before the reporting match, the advantage in personal meetings was on Rublev’s side: 3-2. In the main draws of the ATP tournaments, he won three fights out of four: at the Kremlin Cup-2019, in Vienna-2019 and in Rotterdam-2020. Bublik defeated his opponent in the Kremlin Cup qualification in 2016, and then turned out to be stronger in the aforementioned Halle final.
Alexander Bublik and Andrey Rublev at the awards ceremony after the Halle 2023 final
Photo: Thomas F. Starke/Getty Images
At first, the rivals did not allow themselves to break points, and Rublev brought one of the games to nil. So they reached the score 3: 3, and in the seventh game Andrey left the break point, after which he took a medical break, which turned out to be very short. It turned out that the tennis player slightly injured the fingers of his right hand after the ball flew at him.
Rublev rewinds with an injured finger in a match with Bublik at Wimbledon 2023
Photo: Frame of the transmission.
Over the course of the eighth game, there was also a short hiatus, as Rublev bled from an injured finger. But nothing serious, fortunately, did not happen. And in the 12th game, Andriy for the first time in the match went to break point (a double fault from Bagel helped), and it was already set point at the reception. Rublev used it on his first try, after Alexander allowed a second straight double to win the set 7-5. Bagel in this game completed as many as nine aces (against four from the opponent), but he was disappointed by errors – 12 unforced against only three from the opponent.
In the second set, Rublev already had a break point in the second game, after Bublik committed two double faults, but Andrei did not take advantage to take someone else’s serve. In the fourth game, Alexander gave the opponent a double break point (again two double points per game), but saved himself by unexpectedly submitting from his hand with “over” – 2:2. And in the fifth game, Rublev already left the break point, after which he took someone else’s serve – 4: 2. With 5: 3, Andrey served for the game and achieved his goal from the first set point. .
Rublev took the second set in just half an hour. The bagel was quite wrong: he had five doubles (the opponent had none) and unforced: 11 (against the opponent’s three). “Mood: I want to say nasty things. I’m really looking forward to it,” Alexander said on the court, losing the second game.
At the start of the third set, Bublik stepped up and stopped allowing doubles. In the sixth game, Alexander got a triple break point, but Rublev got out of a difficult situation – 3:3. In the ninth game, with the score 4:4, Andrei missed a break point, which is also a hidden match point. There were no more breaks and the tennis players went to the tiebreakers. In it, Bublik led 6:3, thus winning a triple set point, but failed – 6:6. And yet Alexander took the game, winning the next two points – 8:6. In the third set alone, he racked up 12 aces and his opponent just three.
In the fourth set, the opponents acted more confidently on the field, not giving themselves a chance to reach break points. And in the tenth game Rublev, with a score of 5: 4 in his favor, broke this trend. Andrei won a double match point on the reception, but missed it – 5:5. Taking another game to serve, the tennis players went to a tie-break, the second in this match. And again Bublik turned out to be better, taking advantage of the first setball: 7:5, despite the fact that Rublev led 5:3 after the minibreak.
In the decisive fifth game, as before, the tennis players for some time clearly acted on the field, as a result of which none of them could reach a breaking point, not to mention more. The key moment occurred in the seventh game, when Rublev was still able to take someone else’s serve from the first break point – 4: 3 with a break. And at 5:4 Andrey served for the match. Having reached double match point, Rublev used it immediately, closing out the game with an ace. The final score is 7:5, 6:3, 6:7 (6:8), 6:7 (5:7), 6:4 in favor of Andrey. The match lasted 3 hours and 19 minutes. Bublik racked up 39 aces (Rublev – 20), but Andrei made mistakes much less often (double – 2:14, unforced – 21:52).
This was how Rublev for the first time in his career reached the top eight at Wimbledon. In the quarterfinals he will play the winner of the match Hubert Hurkach (Poland, 17)-Novak Djokovic (Serbia, 2). This match will also take place today, July 9. Follow all the events in the “Championship”.
