Andrey Rublev booked the first semifinal spot at the 2023 Monte-Carlo Masters after overcoming Jan Lennard Struff.
In terms of the ranking, the Russian faced the easiest quarterfinal opponent as all other quarterfinalists are seeded players, while Struff is ranked 100th and had to play through the qualifying. However, the German was still determined to fight for his first ATP 1000 semifinals appearance.
In the first two rounds, Rublev defeated Spanish clay-court specialist Jaume Munar and then he outplayed also his good friend Karen Khachanov despite challenging conditions. On the other hand, Struff took down the likes of Alex de Minaur and the fourth-seeded Casper Ruud.
In the past, the two met four times on the ATP Tour and each won two matches, and they met also twice in the qualifying and futures matches, with both winning one match. Therefore, despite a major difference in the rankings going into this match, both knew that there was a lot to play for.
Rublev didn't start well as he was broken immediately in the first game of the match, but he used that to fuel his comeback and subsequent domination in the first set. He broke on all of his opponent's service games and after only 26 minutes, the Russian won the first set 6-1.
After not being able to convert his first six break points in the second set, Rublev was ahead once more as he used his seventh in the seventh game of the second set.
But then, he lost a 40-15 lead on his serve and Struff was able to break back as the Russian let off the emotions trapped inside of him. After both players held a couple more service games, a tie-break decided the second set.
Despite initially loosing the one mini-break lead, the Russian added another after his opponent made a double fault and gave Rublev chance to control the rest of the tie-break and win it 7-5 to advance to the 2023 Monte-Carlo Masters semifinals.
Rublev will now want to use the early finish and comfortable victory to his advantage as he will prepare for the semifinal match against the winner of meeting between the second-seeded two-time defending champion Stefanos Tsitsipas and the eighth-seeded Taylor Fritz.
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