Rublev records first ever win over Zverev to reach Dubai final
ATP
Andrey Rublev already faced match points at the 2023 Dubai Championships, but now, he's only one step away from defending his title.
In the second round against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, the Russian faced five match points but saved all of them to advance. Then, Rublev defeated Botic van de Zandschulp before taking on the seventh-seeded Alexander Zverev, who he had never beaten before in their previous 5 meetings on the ATP Tour.
In the first set, the German was missing a lot, and Rublev took advantage of that. Zverev made 10 unforced errors while hitting only 6 winners, and since he was broken three times and responded only once, Rublev won the first set 6-3.
But the level of tennis dramatically improved in the second set. Both players were almost perfect on their service games as Zverev hit 9 aces, hitting his first serve 83% of the time and winning 77% after doing so.
However, Rublev still created a chance to break the German's serve in the twelfth game, which was also his first match point, but he couldn't use it, so the tie-break had to decide.
Both players had their chances in the tie-break, and plenty of them. Rublev had a total of five match points, while Zverev had only one chance to win, but players changed sites three times as the marathon tie-break reached a score of 9-9.
Eventually, Rublev won the last two points, winning the match 6-3, 7-6(9) to reach the 2023 Dubai Championships final. He will await the winner of another semifinal match between Novak Djokovic and Daniil Medvedev.
Both of them are in great form and will be favored to win against Rublev, but he has proven that he never gives up, which might help him in the final match against one of the two Grand Slam winners.
