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Rublev Foils Tsitsipas In Drama-Filled Opener
Andrey Rublev upsets eighth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas at the US Open. © Clive Brunskill/Getty Images

ATP Staff
Aug 27, 2019

Popyrin, Berrettini also advance
Fans on Louis Armstrong Stadium were treated to a dramatic encounter to kick off Day 2 at the US Open. Andrey Rublev survived a dogged display from a cramping Stefanos Tsitsipas to advance to the second round under bright skies in New York.

Rublev eventually triumphed 6-4, 6-7(5), 7-6(7), 7-5 after three hours and 55 minutes, but the Russian was made to work by his Greek opponent. Despite yielding 25 winners in the third set, Rublev would save a set point to edge ahead by two sets to one.

But in the fourth, with Tsitsipas enduring severe leg cramps, it was the hobbled Athens native who refused to acquiesce to defeat. Barely able to move, he hit two aces in a row to hold for 3-2 and was blasting winners left and right on one leg. In the end, it was Rublev who finally converted the decisive break for 4-3 after denying seven break points in the previous game.

"It was tough conditions and we played an amazing match," said Rublev. "I know how it is. I was cramping many times during the match too. This is five sets that we're working for. When you win matches like this, it gives you confidence. This match is special, because you know how great he is."

You May Also Like: Rublev's Road Back From The Sofa
Rublev is back at the site of his Cinderella run in 2017, when he shocked the field en route to the last eight. Fresh off quarter-final runs in both Cincinnati and Winston-Salem, the 21-year-old is on fire once again as he continues his comeback from a stress fracture in his lower back. It was his third Top 10 win of the season, having also upset Dominic Thiem in Hamburg and Roger Federer in Cincinnati.

Russian upset Tsitsipas in first round of the US Open
Andrey Rublev sprung an upset Tuesday at the US Open, ousting eighth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas, the reigning Next Gen ATP Finals champion. But that wasn’t a massive surprise, as the match was on many people’s radar. Just two weeks ago, Rublev defeated Roger Federer at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati. It was expected that Rublev could trouble Tsitsipas with his powerful baseline game.

But while you may think Rublev was riding high on confidence after beating Federer, that confidence actually came from just after Wimbledon, and not on hard courts. Rublev made the final of the Hamburg European Open, an ATP 500 clay-court event.

“I won playing not good tennis, but just because I was fighting and I was a little bit lucky, I don’t know. I still won [matches]. And this sometimes is even better, because this also gives you confidence that even playing your worst tennis, you know how to win,” Rublev said. “This is amazing because all the top players, they know how to do it when they are playing so bad, they still have enough level to [go] at least [at a] minimum [to the] middle of the tournament. They don’t need to play their best to go far and this is amazing. This gives you a lot of confidence.”

It was Rublev’s first ATP Tour final since 2018 Doha, which came in the first week of last season. The Russian had made just one tour-level semi-final since then.

You May Also Like: Rublev's Road Back From The Sofa
Part of the reason behind that was injuries. Although Rublev reached a career-high No. 31 in the ATP Rankings last February, he’d miss three months from April through July due to a lower back stress fracture. The 21-year-old spent three hours per day at a clinic doing magnetotherapy, then Rublev would eat lunch and sit on his sofa. He’d avoid watching tennis because he wanted to be there.

This season, Rublev fell as low as No. 115 in the ATP Rankings in February, and then he was out for six weeks towards the end of the clay-court swing due to a wrist injury. But he didn’t sit dreaming of moments like his victories over Federer and Tsitsipas.

“I try not to put goals and don’t try to think in the future, Well, if I do this…’,” Rublev said. “I just try to do my best today to improve every day and I know that if I improve these things that I need to improve, I will be a much better player, I will play much better. So this means that for sure I will win more matches. If I win more matches I will get more points, so it’s step by step you know? I focus more on this, especially on practise to give every day everything that I can.”


Something that has also helped in recent months is overcoming obstacles he hadn’t in the past. Rublev lost his first two FedEx ATP Head2Head meetings against Basilashvili this year, and then defeated him in three sets in Cincinnati. The World No. 43 also pointed to victories over Thomas Fabbiano and Albert Ramos-Vinolas at last week’s Winston-Salem Open.

“I was going mentally crazy because I didn’t know what to do, how to play [against them before], and I beat them,” Rublev said. “These matches are also giving a lot of confidence, when the guys you were struggling with to play and finally you become strong mentally, and you accept that okay, you can lose, but let’s do your job the best as you can. And in the end, you turn it into victory and that gives you also a lot of confidence.”

Reigning Nitto ATP Finals champion Alexander Zverev — who was born exactly six months before the Russian — is a friend of Rublev’s, and they recently played doubles together at the Coupe Rogers. To the World No. 6, Rublev’s recent success is no surprise.

“He’s very motivated. He had a few injuries in the past 18 months. He’s somebody that’s very motivated to play. He’s always been a good player, he’s been [near the] Top 30 already at a very young age. I think he’s going to get back,” Zverev told ATPTour.com. “That’s the level that he can play at, definitely.”

One thing that has at times held Rublev back is his emotions on the court. There has never been a question of the Russian’s talent — he can strike groundstrokes from the baseline with the best players in the world. But sometimes, he has let his passion get the best of him in key moments.


German Jan-Lennard Struff gets on well with Rublev and is highly complimentary of the 2017 Umag champion's game and character. He has known the Russian since his early teenage years, when Rublev's emotions were plenty visible.

“He was practising [in Halle where I lived] when he was like 13 or 14, I don’t remember. My ex-girlfriend was driving him because he had no car. She was driving him to supermarkets. I don’t know if he remembers that, but it was quite funny,” Struff told ATPTour.com. “He was always on court throwing his racquet, playing with one of the club guys and just playing every ball full power and not putting it into the court, putting it into the court felt like random.

“One of the coaches said there’s no chance that he’s not going to go Top 30. He’s such a good player and he’s a nice guy,” Struff said. “He plays so hard the ball, flat, he’s going for every shot and even if he’s missing, he’s still committed in his game. I like that a lot.”

Rublev is doing better to harness those emotions and with it, his game.

“Of course after every match that I was losing or when I was playing I was saying, ‘No, I am so bad, I am the worst one.’ But this is just to take emotions out. But of course inside I always believed,” Rublev said. “Always inside, no matter what I was saying outside, inside I know that I will do my best to try to do as best as I can.”

Rublev will look to do the same in the second round against Gilles Simon.

Russian will next face Berrettini
Two years ago when he was 19, Andrey Rublev became the youngest US Open quarter-finalist since a 19-year-old Andy Roddick in 2001. And on Saturday evening, the Russian moved to within one victory of reaching the last eight at Flushing Meadows once again.

In a hard-hitting match, Rublev squeaked past Nick Kyrgios and the Aussie's 30 aces 7-6(5), 7-6(5), 6-3 to reach the fourth round after one hour and 51 minutes. The 21-year-old upset No. 8 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in the first round.

"In the end, everything was today on my side," Rublev said.


Rublev, who has not advanced past the third round at another Grand Slam championship, has enjoyed a resurgent month on the ATP Tour. At the Western & Southern Open, the two-time Next Gen ATP Finals qualifier defeated Roger Federer for the biggest win of his career. And the 2017 Umag champion has not suffered a letdown in New York, crushing groundstrokes relentlessly to reach the second week.

You May Also Like: How Accepting Losing Has Helped Andrey Rublev Win
In the first set, both players dominated with their serve, with neither man earning a break point. And in the tie-break, errors cost Kyrgios dearly. The Aussie made errors he had not been making throughout the first 12 games, including a miss on a sitting backhand volley.

Kyrgios ripped a backhand down the line return at 5/6 that missed by centimetres — if by that much — to give Rublev the lead in the pair’s second FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting. Kyrgios triumphed in three sets last year in Moscow.

"In the beginning I was thinking, 'I hope I can make it to a tie-break and I hope in three sets at least I will win one tie-break and maybe I will have a chance,'" Rublev said. "So when I won the first set in a tie-break I said, 'Phew, this is already really good.'"

The decisive moment in the match came in the second-set tie-break. Kyrgios got off to a much better start, taking a 4/0 lead. But Rublev maintained his focus and with a big return on his first set point, he forced an error from the No. 28 seed. The World No. 43 earned the match's only break in the third set and rode that to a victory.

"The tie-break, even though it looks like 4/0 is a huge difference, if you win one point then make two good serves it's already 4/3," Rublev said. "And then 4/3 someone [can] get tight or a lucky return or unlucky serve or a lucky serve. It looks like a big advantage, but in the end it's not really."