Rublev advances to Monte-Carlo final over Fritz

Andrey Rublev was able to finish off the job against Taylor Fritz 5-7 6-1 6-3 at the Monte-Carlo Masters after they both returned from a rain delay that saw the match delayed.

We were in the 3rd set when the rain started to fall and stopped play between Rublev and Fritz. Up until then, we saw an interesting fight between the players with no clear winner in sight. The American took the opening set 7-5 despite trailing for a good portion of that set. Despite Rublev being ahead most of the time it was a very competitive match.

He jumped out to a 2-0 lead but Fritz made it 2-2. Rublev then made it 3-2 but Fritz broke back immediately. The Russian then served for the set at 5-4 after breaking once more but Fritz broke back and ultimately won the first set by finishing it off with a 3-0 run at the end of the set. We saw 7 breaks in 12 games of play.

We saw a few breaks in the second set as well but mostly by Rublev who smashed Fritz 6-1 in that one. He was on fire from the baseline hitting 11 winners while Fritz was rather unprecise hitting only 4. The final set was delayed by a rain delay with players returning about two hours later. It was 30-15 for Rublev on the serve of Fritz and the Russian used the opportunity to break.

He then held his serve comfortably to close out the match 6-3 in the end.