The Hague (AFP)
Russian Andrey Rublev (8th in the world) won his fourth title in the indoor tournament in Rotterdam on Sunday in less than six months, dominating in the final the Hungarian Marton Fucsovics 7-6 (7/4), 6-4 in 1 h 50 min.
Rublev has lost only one match since the start of the year, in the quarterfinal of the Australian Open against another Russian, world No.3 Daniil Medvedev, future Australian Grand Slam finalist.
The one who has also reached the quarter-finals in the last three Grand Slam tournaments (US Open, Roland Garros, Australian Open) brings his number of titles to eight, at 23, and will approach Monday less than 500 points in the world ranking of 7th, the German Alexander Zverev.
His last four tournaments have been won in the ATP 500 category, the most important after the Grand Slams and the Masters 1000.
The Fucsovics counter remains stuck at one title.
But the Hungarian, 59th in the world at 29 years old and having gone through the qualifications in Rotterdam, gave a hard time to Rublev, who had had to fight a tough fight in the semi-finals against the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas (6th in the world).
The first set was extremely tight, each player winning their service games until the tie break where Fucsovics ended up giving in by offering this round to his opponent on two unforced errors in forehand.
In the process, Rublev took from the start of the set following the service of the Hungarian.
He kept this break in advance until the end to finally beat Fucsovics for the second time in a row, in three confrontations.
"Marton (59th in the world, editor's note) was confident. He came out of qualifying and played an extraordinary tournament. It was a + tricky + match for me because I was favorite. But in a final, that doesn't mean anything", commented Rublev, who moved from 23rd to 8th place in the world since early 2020.
© 2021 AFP