Earlier this week, Andrey Rublev said he could not believe that Stefanos Tsitsipas has twice won back-to-back titles in Marseille and Dubai.
Well, Andrey, join the club!
Six days after lifting the Marseille trophy, Rublev triumphed at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Jiri Vesely. The Russian needed only one hour and 20 minutes to get the job done on Sunday evening, as he took advantage of an opponent who was coming off a three-hour and 12-minute seminal thriller against Denis Shapovalov.
“I came here without any expectation,” Rublev reflected. “I was thinking, ‘even if I’m going to win at least one round, it’s going to be something like a miracle.’ I was a bit in this kind of mood.”
But the world No. 7 fought through his fatigue for a 10th career title, including an incredible fifth at the ATP 500 level. Fortunately for Rublev, he obviously wasn’t the only fatigued player on the court in the championship match.
“I think it is likely (that) Jiri was also tired, he had really tough matches since qualies,” Dubai’s No. 2 seed said. “He beat top players starting from the first round. (Marin) Cilic, he beat Roberto (Bautista Agut), then he beat Novak (Djokovic), (and) yesterday he beat Shapo 7-6 in the third. Trust me, when you beat these kinds of players it’s almost impossible to stand up and walk…. Good job to him; good job for the week.”
At the Abierto Mexicano Telcel, the final was also a top seed against an outsider–albeit not one to Vesely’s extent. Cameron Norrie actually had more in common with Rublev this week, as the Brit was going for consecutive titles after prevailing last weekend in Delray Beach.
But it was not to be for Norrie, and he can blame Rafael Nadal for that fact.
Nadal remained undefeated in 2022 (15-0) by beating his fellow left-hander 6-4, 6-4 on Sunday night. The 35-year-old Spaniard, who erased soon-to-be world No. 1 Daniil Medvedev 6-3, 6-3 in the semifinals, failed to serve out the match at 5-2 in the second but came up with a hold at 5-4 to seal the deal in one hour and 54 minutes.
“I was able to save some very difficult moments in the match,” Nadal noted. “I’m very pleased; it’s a very important title for me. I can’t be happier…. [Acapulco] has always been a very special place for me in my career. The energy that the people from Mexico bring to me is unique.”
nice job, forehand kings
I really wonder about Indian Wells and Miami now… who might be the most likely player to beat Rafa? The Djoker might still be the best bet, but if the rules won’t get changed, he cannot play. And we really cannot know for sure how good Novak is right now. In 2022 he has hardly played. What about Zverev? Will he receive further penalties, and how does the scandal affect his mental prowess? Also, Rafa’22 seems to be a different player than Rafa’21.
I truly hope that he doesn’t become overplayed because of his recent hardcourt successes…
Tough call for Rafa. Playing Miami after IW may be too much. He never won Miami and on current form (and especially if Novax is missing) he has a very good chance this year. On the other hand, IW suits him much better. Also nowadays he seems to win his matches in under 2h, so maybe he can play both.
I believe Rafa and his team know best what to do. If Rafa continues to play like this, maybe he can play both IW and Miami and even wins both!
The two events are played over four weeks, so there’s time to rest between the two events. Meddy may still be his main obstacle if Djoko doesn’t play. Rublev may be tired after three consecutive tournaments he played; Tsitsipas too and he’s still inconsistent in his play; Berrettini and FAA are injured and coming back from injury, will take time to get back to their best.
Zverev I don’t know whether he’s allowed to play and if yes how’s his level? I think most of the players have played a lot of tennis by this time, so may not be in tip top conditions. Of course there may be dark horses lurking around, like Alcaraz and Sinner for examples; still if Rafa is in good physical conditions to play, he should be the favourite to win at least one of the two masters.