There will be no all-Russian matchup in the China Open quarterfinals. No. 2 seed Daniil Medvedev took care of Alex de Minaur in straight sets, but No. 5 seed Andrey Rublev lost to Ugo Humbert 5-7, 6-3, 7-6(3) on Saturday.
Although Rublev seemed to be in control when he served for the match at 5-3 in the third, the 25-year-old got broken at love and Humbert had the upper hand the rest of the way. Humbert surged to a 5-1 lead in the decisive tiebreaker and ended up prevailing after two hours and 48 minutes.
“I was really focussed from the beginning of the second set and the level was high,” said the Frenchman, who is ranked 36th and is expected to break into the top 30 next week. “It’s not easy against him because he plays very fast. I’m very proud that I did it…. I was outside the top 100 last year. I feel I played very well the last few weeks in Davis Cup (and now) here. I’m very happy to win against [Rublev].”
In the bottom half of the Beijing draw the Monday quarterfinal matchups are Medvedev vs. Humbert and Alexander Zverev vs. Nicolas Jarry.
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nice one, Ugo
One of my favourite players. Pity he not more consistent