Andrey Rublev Sets Up Quarterfinal With Arthur Rinderknech

After two hours and 23 minutes in the Middle Eastern humidity, Andrey Rublev booked his place in the quarterfinals of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. It’s the second week running that the Russian has made a deep run at the ATP 500 level, with a narrow semifinal loss to Carlos Alcaraz in Doha last Friday.

Andrey Rublev Reaches Back-To-Back Quarterfinals

A Coaching Change

Rublev’s career has somewhat staggered in recent years. He is part of the middle generation between the “big four” and respective “Sincaraz” eras. Just like Stefanos Tsitsipas and Daniil Medvedev, although all three to differing extents, it seemed as though he was slumping away into the world of irrelevancy in terms of fighting for the major prizes.

It’s not to say that won’t be the case. Since joining with Marat Safin last year, the 28-year-old has had an underwhelming run of results relative to the expectations of the once up and coming star. Overall, he has managed just one Tour level quarterfinal, semifinal, and final since the change.

Renewed Confidence

His showing last week at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open was the most promising there has been for a substantial amount of time. He was arguably the second best player in the tournament despite failing to reach the final. A 7-6 6-4 loss to Alcaraz was really put into perspective with the Spaniard needing just fifty minutes to defeat Arthur Fils in the final.

Rublev has built on this momentum in Dubai, with a comfortable first-round win against Valentin Royer and a gutsy display against Ugo Humbert in the Round of 16.

Against Humbert, the backhand battle was always going to be an interesting one, particularly with the right vs left-handed battle. In the first set, it was Rublev who got the upper hand in this regard, teeing off nicely early on. In contrast, Humbert saw a careless unforced error hand his counterpart a 4-3 lead from which there was no returning.

As the second set began, the Frenchman took his level up a notch. He made a blunder at 2-3 and a break point up, letting a ball pass him which would just drop on the line. Rublev thanked his lucky stars and stuck with the former champion. Yet, after a tense tiebreak ending 7-5, Humbert edged it out and forced a third set.

Finishing Strong

The impetus once again switched, with Rublev now looking the more likely to break. He found that break at the second time of asking, with an excellent return from an out wide lefty serve on the advantage court. He never looked back and closed out the decider 6-3 before letting out a huge roar of joy. For a player who can so often struggle in such scenarios and has a particular history at this very tournament, it was clearly a big moment to finally get over the finish line.

For the third straight time this tournament, he faces a Frenchman, this time in the shape of Arthur Rinderknech. The 30-year-old has come through two three set matches against Fabian Marozsán and a recently returning to the tour Jack Draper.

Rublev leads the head-to-head 3-0, with all three previous meetings on hard court over the past three years. You feel it’s an excellent opportunity to continue the momentum ahead of a looming Sunshine Double.