Andrey Rublev had to dig deep to end Shang Juncheng’s stunning run Saturday at the Bank of China Hong Kong Tennis Open.
The top seed downed the #NextGenATP Chinese 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 in a two-hour, 10-minute semi-final battle at the hard-court ATP 250. The 18-year-old Shang, who saved match points to prevail in both the first and second rounds in Hong Kong, came out firing in the pair’s first Lexus ATP Head2Head clash. Yet Rublev dialled in to break his younger opponent’s resistance, with a break in the eighth game of the deciding set proving decisive.
https://x.com/atptour/status/1743589515757830320?s=20
“It was a super tough match,” said Rublev in his on-court interview. “He’s super talented, super powerful and he was playing unbelievable. I was thinking in some moments that I have no chance, because the feeling was that he was dominating, and I didn’t know what to do.
“Somehow, I just kept fighting, kept trying to say something positive… In the end I was able to make a break, won the second set, and the third set was more equal until the [eighth] game.”
Rublev fired 29 winners, including 12 aces, according to Infosys ATP Stats as he reached his 24th ATP Tour final. The 26-year-old’s opponent on Sunday will be Finn Emil Ruusuvuori, who earlier defeated Sebastian Ofner 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 to reach his second tour-level championship match.
Leave a Reply