Andrey Rublev crashes out of the Rome Masters, beaten by Krajinovic

Andrey Rublev played a very lacklustre match against Filip Krajinovic who quite possibly played his best all year to oust the Russian 6-2 6-4.

It's been a struggle for Andrey Rublev on clay recently as the Russian can't seem to string together a few good wins. Apart from the Belgrade Open, Rublev really has not played a very strong clay event. While he primarily works best on hard courts he can play on this surface well and he quite enjoys it as well. This time around however he was simply beaten by a player who was on fire.

Krajinovic has a lot of talent but the Serbian rarely shows it. The inconsistencies in his player frustrate many but from time to time he plays the way he can and today was that day. From the start, it was obvious that the Serbian is having a very good day. He took a 2-0 lead early on with Rublev quite nervous from the start. The Russian never recovered.

He lost the opening one 2-6 and then lost the 2nd 4-6 despite playing quite a bit better. Towards the end of the match, Rublev was starting to play a little bit better but the Serbian was able to grind it out and not allow himself to throw away this lead. He had 26 winners to 12 mistakes which is brutally impressive for a 68-minute match. Rublev had 15 to 11 but simply not good enough.