By Erik Gudris | @atntennis | Wednesday, July 31, 2024
Despite a rain delay in DC, both Andrey Rublev and Emma Raducanu booked their places in the next round at the combined ATP/WTA 500 event.
Photo Credit: Ben Solomon/Mubadala Citi DC Open
At the combined ATP/WTA 500 Mubadala Citi DC Open both heat and rain are expected in the nation’s capital of Washington, DC.
That was certainly the case for two of the event’s top names as they advanced despite an extended rain delay on Wednesday.
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Top men’s seed Andrey Rublev of Russia found himself in early trouble against France’s Luca Van Assche before taking the match 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Rublev dropped the first set 6-4 and was in a close battle in the second set before heavy rain descended over the area. The rain delay ended up being over two and half hours.
When the World No. 8 Rublev returned to court, he found a way to take the next two sets and put himself into the next round.
“The key I think was that after the rain delay I was able to start to be more active. I start to play a bit better. I was not missing that much. I was serving more consistently. That was the difference,” Rublev said after the match.
“The first set, I was playing horrible. I was missing many easy shots. Could not even put two balls in a row. Yeah, I missed a lot of easy balls without reason, without sense. In the end I start to feel super tight. He start to feel confident.
"The rain delay, I was able to calm myself down, to think about the match, to understand what I was doing wrong. When I came back, I was able to just to start to play without trying to go for crazy shots, without something. Okay, let's play the rally. Little by little I start to play better. Yeah, that was the key.”
Rublev will next face No. 16 seed Arthur Rinderknech of France.
On the women’s side, former US Open champion Emma Raducanu continued her recent strong form after placing herself into the event’s quarterfinals for the second straight year.
The 21-year-old from the UK advance with a 7-6(6), 6-2 win over American Peyton Stearns.
In the first time meeting between the two players, both struggled with errors in the early games. In the fourth game, Raducanu, while serving, saved three break points before closing out the nine minute game.
She then broke Stearns in the next game after her opponent double faulted while down break point. Raducanu, serving for the set at 5-4, trailed 15-30 when rain suspended play.
After the match resumed, Stearns broke to level things at 5-all. Eventually a tiebreaker was needed that Raducanu won after Stearns committed a forehand error down set point.
Raducanu then took control early in the second set and then eventually closed out the straight sets win.
She awaits the winner of Thursday’s match between No. 3 seed and former event winner Liudmila Samsonova and Paula Badosa.
Photo Credit: Ben Solomon/Mubadala Citi DC Open