"These are the moments we practice for" says Andrey Rublev after win over Tsitsipas

The Russian arrived in the Piedmontese capital after a rough stretch of results that saw him lose to pretty much anybody he played. Ahead of the event he said he practiced harder and worked on his mental part in order to be ready and it paid off considerably. Rublev was locked in from the start posting absurd serving numbrs in the first set. WHile not as sharp in the 2nd he was still very good securing the win.

After the match he expressed satisfaction of how things went:

“I think these are the moments that we are practising for, that we are living for: to be here and to enjoy this atmosphere, to play great tennis and for the spectators to enjoy,” Rublev said in an on-court interview. “[All] I could do my best today, I did and I’m really happy.”

Rublev highlighted his serve as a key component of the victory and the serve was truly spectacular. In the first set, he hit 95 % of his first serves while in the 2nd that number however around 65 %. On that he said:

“When you serve good, it’s always the key. But it was not even just the serve. I was returning really aggressive, from the baseline I was also really aggressive. Today I played a great match and I'm really happy.”