Saint Petersburg (AFP)
Andrey Rublev added a trophy to an already packed gallery in 2020: after his titles in Doha, Adelaide and Hamburg, the 22-year-old Russian won the Saint-Petersburg tournament on Sunday by defeating Croatian Borna Coric 7 in the final. -6 (7/5), 6-4.
With this new performance, Rublev, who entered the World Top 10 last Monday for the first time in his career, will be ranked 8th on Monday.
This further strengthens his chances of qualifying for the Masters (late November in London), reserved for the eight best players of the year.
Six are already certain to play this Masters: Djokovic, Nadal, Thiem, Tsitsipas, Medvedev and Zverev.
In the absence of Roger Federer, world No. 4 who forfeited, the 8th and 9th world of the year, will join them.
"This year I wasn't hoping for a chance (to play in the Masters) so it doesn't change much for me," said Rublev, now 249 points ahead of Argentina's Diego. Schwartzman, who occupies the 9th and last qualifying place for the Masters.
"If I compete it will be a very good thing. But even if I do not dispute it, this season will have been very good anyway," added the Russian, quarter-finalist at the US Open and Roland- Garros, who doesn't want to put any pressure on himself.
In the number of titles won in 2020, only the world No.1 Novak Djokovic, crowned at the Australian Open, Dubai, Cincinnati and Rome, did as well as the Russian.
The tournaments won by Djokovic are nevertheless of a higher caliber than those won by Rublev, who also won in St. Petersburg the sixth cup of his career on the main circuit.
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© 2020 AFP