Andrey
Rublev provided a fun moment after winning the
Bastad Open and forgetting to
thank his team.
The Russian
tennis player secured another title, his 14th in his career, by defeating
Casper Ruud with a score of 7-6(3), 6-0. This marks Rublev's second trophy in
2023, both on clay, as he previously won the Masters 1000 Monte-Carlo Open.
During the
prize-giving ceremony of the ATP 250 Bastad Open, the world No. 7 delivered a
speech as the new champion but amusingly omitted mentioning his team, much to
the amusement of the present audience.
"I
forgot my team! I forgot about my coach there," Rublev said.
"It's
a funny thing because normally my main coach is Fernando Vicente, and Alberto
Martin is my now second coach, we started [working together] this year. The
only titles and finals this year I did with him, not with Fernando! So I guess
we are doing right [things], so thank you so much, and hopefully, more titles
come," he added.
As the
second seed, Rublev began his participation in the round of 16 after receiving
a bye in the first round. In his first match, he faced his fellow countryman
Pavel Kotov and advanced to the quarterfinals, where he convincingly defeated
the fifth seed Alexander Zverev with a score of 6-2, 6-3.
In the
semifinals, he had a tough battle against the fourth seed, Argentine Francisco
Cerundolo, in a nearly three-hour duel, and managed to secure the victory with
a score of 7-6(6), 6-7(7), 6-3.
The highly
anticipated final of the Bastad Open promised an incredible showdown between
the first and second seeds: Casper Ruud and
Andrey Rublev. In a closely
contested first set, the Russian took the advantage in the tie-break to gain
the upper hand against the Norwegian.
The second
set saw Rublev being relentless against a poor level of play exhibited by Ruud,
who couldn't win another game in the match, resulting in a final score of
7-6(3), 6-0 in favor of Andrey Rublev.