Andrey Rublev celebrates his qualification for Turin with victory in Metz | ATP Tour

Metz

Rublev celebrates his qualification to Turin with victory in Metz

The main seed advances to the quarterfinals at the French ATP 250

November 05, 2024

There is no better way to close the regular season than with qualification to the Nitto ATP Finals. And that is what Andrey Rublev was able to celebrate this Tuesday before taking to the court at the Moselle Open, where he put the cherry on top with a victory to advance to the quarterfinals.

The top seed defeated Lorenzo Sonego in his debut in the second round in Metz 7-6(3), 7-5, in one hour and 52 minutes.

After Novak Djokovic announced that he would not participate in Turin due to injury, the three remaining places at the Nitto ATP Finals were assigned to Casper Ruud, Alex de Miñaur and Rublev himself, shortly before extending his record of debuts in the tournaments played this year. hard court season at 14-3 in Metz.

“It’s always nice to play a couple of matches before the big events,” Rublev said of qualifying for the Nitto ATP Finals. “Here [en Metz]you play against great players because the level of tennis is very equal. With the speed of the surface, tennis becomes even and only small details decide matches like today’s. “Anyone can beat anyone.”

Rublev managed to equal the Lexus ATP Head2Head against Sonego (2-2), defeating the Italian again four years after doing so for the first time in Vienna 2020, in precisely the same conditions as this Tuesday: indoor hard court.

“It was a tough match, he played very well, he had beaten me the last two times,” Rublev recalled. “With the way he serves and how he hits his forehand, it is very difficult to play against him. The first set could have gone either way, but as soon as I had an opportunity, I was able to take advantage of it.”

He withstood Sonego’s 12 aces, according to Infosys ATP statistics, to put himself in position to beat De Minaur in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin. And the Australian, who qualified for the Nitto ATP Finals for the first time, was absent in Belgrade and will not score points this week.

Rublev, with 3,720 points in his locker, could regain the No. 8 he lost after falling in his first match last week at the ATP Masters 1000 in Paris (l. to Francisco Cerúndolo), if he wins one more match on the hard court French cover.

Rublev will face the winner of the match that closes the day on Metz’s center court between local favorite Corentin Moutet and No. 7 seed Jan-Lennard Struff in the quarterfinals.

For his part, the Belgian Zizou Bergs resolved his first match against the French lucky loser Manuel Guinard – who took the place of the injured Arthur Cazaux – 6-4, 6-4 in one hour and 22 minutes.

Did you know that…?

Andrey Rublev, current No. 9 in the PIF ATP Rankings, is the highest-ranked player in the Metz quarterfinals since Stan Wawrinka did so in 2015 as world No. 4.