Andrey Rublev on Friday produced an audacious display of attacking tennis to hand record 11-time champion Rafael Nadal a 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 defeat on clay in the Monte Carlo Masters quarter-finals.
The sixth-seeded Russian might have won even more convincingly, with Nadal saving break points at 3-1 down in the second set.
Nadal clawed his way back to win that set and seemed to have settled down, but Rublev broke him immediately at the start of the decider, in which the 34-year-old Nadal looked tired.
Photo: Reuters
“When you face a great player like him and you don’t play well, you should lose,” Nadal said.
“He played great, he played aggressive. Well done to him,” Nadal said.
Rublev clinched his first win against third-seeded Nadal on his first match point with a typically powerful winner on forehand — a weapon that Nadal struggled to contain throughout the match.
Photo: AP
“I don’t even know what to say. I cannot imagine being in the situation of Rafa, knowing that you are the best player on clay,” Rublev said. “I think for him it must be incredibly tough.”
Having beaten the 20-time Grand Slam champion on one of his clay strongholds, Rublev’s next opponent was unseeded Norwegian Casper Ruud, who knocked out 2019 winner Fabio Fognini of Italy 6-4, 6-3.
Their semi was to finish shortly after press time last night with the other pair of prospective finalists, Dan Evans and Stefanos Tsitsipas, to play after them.
Evans beat 11th-seeded David Goffin 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 to reach the first Masters semi-final of his career.
Fourth-seeded Tsitsipas led 7-5 against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina when the unseeded Spaniard withdrew with a thigh injury.
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