What a drama! Rublev was left without a final after almost three hours of tough tennis

Russian tennis player Andrei Rublev was one step away from making it to the finals in the first tournament of the year. Our star player was stopped only by the main favorite of the competition, Lorenzo Musetti.

“He’s doing better”

The year 2025 was unsuccessful for Rublev. Changes in the coaching team also did not help the emotional Russian to improve the situation. But at the first ATP tournament in 2026 in Hong Kong, Andrei showed a confident performance, reaching the semi-finals.

The start turned out to be nervous: in the first match, our tennis player needed three games to break the resistance of Wu Ibin – 3:6, 6:2, 6:1. But after a difficult confrontation with the Chinese, Rublev did not allow the strong Portuguese Nuno Borges to do anything, winning in two sets – 6:3, 6:4. Thanks to these victories, Andrei reached the semi-finals of an ATP tournament for the first time since the summer of 2025. The Russian’s next opponent was the dangerous Lorenzo Musetti, seeded number one in Hong Kong. The Italian is probably at the peak of his career and is ranked seventh in the ATP rankings.

“Lorenzo has been playing incredibly the last couple of years. He’s getting better and better. He does better and also has a higher rating than me. The first time I played him he was very young, so it doesn’t matter. Tomorrow’s match will be completely different, and I need to be really prepared if I want to perform well and have a chance of winning,” Rublev assessed the level of his opponent before the match.

Andrey Rublev / Photo: © Eurasia Sport Images / Contributor / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

“I’ve never played like this in Hong Kong before.”

In the first game, the players confidently took home games on serve. But in the fifth game, the Italian unexpectedly allowed Rublev to make a break, after which the Russian strengthened his advantage by taking a game on his serve.

True, Andrei would not now be outside the top ten of the ranking if he had not created problems for himself out of the blue. In the eighth game, he allowed Musetti to take his serve to zero. Because of this, the fate of the set was decided in a tiebreaker, where the Russian was still more successful – 7:3.

In the second game, both tennis players reacted emotionally to their own failures. In this nervous atmosphere, no one was able to take advantage of the opponent’s misfires, although there were plenty of break points. It was especially offensive for Rublev after the eighth game, which lasted ten minutes. Andrey could have made a break, but missed two great opportunities.

Unfortunately, Rublev was the first to break down. With the score 5:5, Andrei gave up his serve, making fatal mistakes at an important moment. In his hearts, the Russian even broke his racket. He failed to save the game – 5:7.

In the third game, Andrei played well, but was unable to achieve success. Musetti was better, although only slightly. This was enough to create an advantage at the decisive moment. The Italian took the set with a score of 6:4, having fought off two break points in the tenth game. By that time, the players had been on the court for almost three hours.

– It was another match! I don’t think I’ve ever played in Hong Kong like this before. It was a difficult and long game. Andrey played incredibly, at a super high level. I pushed myself the whole match to surpass him. “I’m proud of myself, I’m very pleased that I was able to make it to the finals,” Musetti said after the victory.

It was clear from Andrey that he was very upset about missing the final, but he showed a very high level. With the right amount of luck, the Russian will be able to make a splash at the Australian Open.