The curse of the quarter-finals at the Grand Slam tournaments still haunts Andrey.
The Australian Open surprised many fans this year: last year’s finalists Nadal and Medvedev, who were eliminated early, cleared the net for many tennis players and, above all, the favorite of any competition, Novak Djokovic.
Andrey Rublev was the least lucky of all the players remaining by the quarterfinals – the fifth seeded number fell on the Serb.
Although the Russian had won the only meeting in the individual tournament before, nothing good came of the new confrontation.
Regular complaints
Enzo Cuaco is the only one to win a set against a Serbian during the current Australian Open. The no-name Frenchman did it in the second round, but in the next two meetings, Djokovic confidently passed both Dimitrov and De Minor. And the Australian Novak gave only five games.
His form before the game with Rublev did not raise questions from anyone, unlike his behavior. Increased complaints about health in the context of his impeccable game on the court seemed something unnatural and even offensive to spectators and opponents.
In the first set of the quarter-finals, nothing has changed, only the object of his experiences was not the long-suffering thigh, but the environment of the tennis player. The Serb was annoyed by the fans, which he always drew the attention of the referee. The 35-year-old athlete spoke emotionally with the coaching staff, demonstrating his displeasure to Goran Ivanisevic.
In general, there was a complete feeling that something was going wrong on the court … although Novak won the opening set with a score of 6:1.
It was still difficult to say something definite about Rublev: Andrei fought diligently in every draw, but he traditionally lacked self-confidence. He lost the most important balls, and this gave the opponent such a big advantage in the score.
Rublev’s uncertainty
By the beginning of the second set, Novak already had 8 aces against only one serve to eliminate Andrey. The big difference is formed by Djokovic’s iron accuracy and Rublev’s unacceptable number of unforced errors for this level.
Our athlete starts to get a crown forehand only when everything is already lost. In the fifth game, with the score 2:2, Andrey allowed the Serb to make three break points and only in an extremely difficult situation did he start to show great tennis. True, with such an opponent it is already too late – the 25-year-old Russian gives his pitch.
Rublev could immediately restore equality, but did not convert the break point. By the middle of the second set, he had only three of them and no breaks. When Andrei “burned” 2:5, and Djokovic had three set points on his serve, our athlete again played some amazing rallies, but could not save the situation: 2:6 in the second set.
It was obvious to everyone that Rublev lacked the right attitude: in critical situations, Novak always outplayed his opponent without unnecessary emotions and mistakes.
Adoption
It was painful to look at Andrei’s face during the break between the second and third sets: almost tears in his eyes and complete awareness of the situation. Like nothing can be changed.
And Rublev started the third set of the match just like that, losing his serve right away. Andrei constantly talked to himself, appealed to the coach, but all this made the atmosphere even more hopeless for the Russian.
Reception at Rublev’s feet, ideal depth in almost every draw, verified trajectory of strikes and a minimum of unforced errors – all this brought Novak closer to victory. And Andrei, as it seemed, somewhere in the depths of his soul just wanted the match to end faster.
A little more than two hours, and the Serb closes Rublev’s road to the first Grand Slam semi-final: 1:6, 2:6, 4:6. For our player, this is already the 7th unsuccessful attempt to enter the top 4 at the most status tournaments of our time. And this defeat looked as weak-willed and hopeless as possible.
