By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Sunday October 18, 2020
Andrey Rublev claimed his fourth title of 2020, defeating good friend Borna Coric in straight sets in the final.
Photo Source: St. Petersburg Open
The Rublev express rolls on.
22-year-old Andrey Rublev notched his fourth title of 2020, tying Novak Djokovic for the ATP lead in that category, with a 7-6(5), 6-4 victory over Croatia’s Borna Coric on Sunday at the St. Petersburg Open.
Rublev becomes the fifth Russian player to claim the title in St. Petersburg, joining Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Marat Safin, Mikhail Youzhny and last year’s champion Daniil Medvedev on the list.
It was yet another stunning performance in a career-best campaign for Rublev. In addition to his four titles, Rublev has claimed 34 wins and reached back-to-back quarterfinals at the US Open and Roland Garros.
He needed to be clutch to get through a tight opening set with Coric in the pair’s fourth career meeting. Rublev won the final five points to take the tiebreaker after falling behind 5-2.
“I just got lucky because Borna was playing unbelievably well,” he said on court after the match.
Rublev won 17 of 24 second serve points in the contest and never faced a break point against Coric.
In the second set Rublev earned a pair of break points with the Croatian serving at 2-2, 15-30, when Coric left a backhand by Rublev, hoping it would go long. It was a tough decision, as Coric was in solid position, and ready to put away a backhand volley, but Rublev’s floater clipped the line, and even though Coric saved a break point with a big serve to get to 30-40, he could not stop Rublev on the next point.
Rublev converted the break on the next point when a Coric backhand found the net.
It was all the 22-year-old needed. He took care of his final three service games with relative ease and dropped to his knees on the court when the championship had been won.
“What can I say, unbelievable job for the last couple of months,” Coric said to Rublev on court. “I’ve been watching your tennis for the last couple of months and honestly, I don’t like losing, but if I have to lose I would like to lose against you.”
Rublev solidifies his qualification bid for this year’s ATP Finals, which will take place from November 15-22 in London.
The Russian adds 200 points to his total and his firmly in seventh in the race, 249 points ahead of Diego Schwartzman.