Rublev overcomes Rune in Monte-Carlo final for first Masters 1000 title

There were two major stumbling blocks in Andrey Rublev’s career: getting past the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam and winning a Masters 1000 title.

Now one of those hurdles has been jumped over.

Rublev captured the biggest title of his career by beating Holger Rune 5-7, 6-2, 7-5 in the final of the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters on Sunday afternoon. The world No. 6 came within a point of going down a double-break in the third set but recovered to triumph after two hours and 34 minutes.

A roller-coaster championship match was a fitting conclusion to this Masters 1000 event, which also saw both Rublev and Rune come back from a set down to win their respective semifinals in addition to four of the eight third-round contests featuring winners who lost the opening set.

In Sunday’s final Rublev dropped the opener but battled back to dominate the second. Rune regained momentum in the decider, seizing a 4-1 lead and even earning a break point for 5-1. After Rublev saved it and held for 2-4, however, everything changed. The Russian quickly broke to get back on serve at 3-4, broke again for a 6-5 advantage, and easily served out the match–converting his second championship point at 40-15 with his fifth ace.

“I have tears,” Rublev said. “I don’t know what to say, to be honest. I don’t know. I am just happy. Finally. [I have] been struggling so much to win this freaking Masters 1000 tournament. Finally losing 4-1, love-30, saving break points, thinking there is no chance to win, and somehow I did it.”

The 25-year-old had previously been 0-2 in Masters finals (0-5 if you include doubles). He is 0-7 lifetime in Grand Slam quarterfinals.

“I was never thinking that way,” Rublev said when asked if he was starting to think he would never win such a big title. “I was thinking that if I do the things right outside the court, practicing-wise, I will have chances to win the big titles. The thing is I didn’t know when it’s gonna happen, this year, last year, two years ago, because I played two finals before, I played couple of times (in) semifinals, and I couldn’t make it. In the end, (it) happens here.

“I didn’t really expect that I [would] win the title before (the) week, but then match by match I started to win, and then…yeah…then somehow I end up winning.”