Andrey Rublev in Paris was going to strengthen his position in the fight for a place at the ATP Final Tournament. A sensational defeat in the debut match ruined the Russian’s plans. Our tennis player, in a bitter struggle, lost the victory to an inconvenient opponent; even an emotional shock did not help.

In vain Rublev tortured his knee with a racket.

Horrible ending

At the Masters series tournament in Paris, which started on Monday, Rublev intended to go as far as possible in order to strengthen his chances in the fight for a place at the ATP Finals in Turin. On Tuesday, October 29, our tennis player had to make his debut immediately in the second round in a match against Francisco Cerundola, who in the French capital began with a victory over local tennis player Quentin Halis.

The Russian’s chances of winning were assessed higher, yet in the world ranking Rublev was ahead of his opponent by 22 positions. In personal matches, however, the Argentine had a slight advantage; he won two matches, while Andrei had only one victory. But fans of our tennis player hardly doubted the positive outcome of the match for him. Moreover, he started the game great, taking his debut serve to zero, and then the opponent’s first serve.

It seemed that Rublev would not have any special problems on the court. He won the first game with a score of 3:0, later 5:2. But the end of the set was just terrible. Serundolo resisted and took his serve. Then the Russian began to act strangely, either failing to get into the court or managing to shoot the ball into the net. The advantage of our tennis player was reduced to a minimum, and then completely evaporated – after the 11th game the Argentinean already took the lead. Andrey continued to fight and had a real chance to save the set, but, unfortunately, he failed – with the score 7:6 (8:6) the game remained with his opponent.

Short-lived effect

The second set seemed to start well again for Rublev, although, of course, not everything worked out for him. The Russian immediately made a break and was close to winning the second game, but in an equal fight he allowed the Argentine to level the score. The offensive situation made Andrey lose his cool, and he attacked himself with a racket seven times. Having smashed his own left knee into blood, the tennis player calmed down a little and even managed to win the next two games.

Andrey Rublev / Photo: © Julian Finney / Staff / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

The effect of this kind of stimulation was short-lived. Serundolo reduced the gap, equalized the score in the game at the end of the eighth game, and took the lead in the ninth. Then the tennis players fought literally for every rally, and the match predictably reached a tiebreaker. In it, Rublev again had a chance to escape, but again, due to an unfortunate coincidence of circumstances, the Russian was unable to pull out the set. 7:6 (7:5) in the second game in favor of the Argentine and 2:0 in his favor ended the 138-minute confrontation.

Andrey’s failure might not have been so offensive; after all, Rublev finished neither his first nor his last tournament in his first match. But another early departure creates a threat for the Russian to lose his place at the ATP Final Tournament in Turin.