By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Saturday February 1, 2025

Aleksandar Kovacevic is ticking all the big boxes this week in Montpellier. The American earned his first Top-10 win and reached his maiden ATP final on Saturday with a 7-5, 6-4 win over top-seeded Andrey Rublev.



102-ranked Kovacevic, up to 75 in the live rankings, will face Felix Auger-Aliassime for the title on Sunday. The Canadian defeated Jesper de Jong 6-4, 7-6(4) in Saturday’s first semifinal clash.

Kovacevic set the tone by breaking Rublev in his first service game. He would go on to engineer a trio of breaks on the day, and he only surrendered one.

“Definitely my level this week has been good,” Kovacevic said. “Andrey is an incredible player, I’ve been watching him for years now while I’ve been coming up. He sets the bar, Top-10 in the world ever since I can remember – just stepping on the court with someone like that is a privilege.

“An underdog like me, when you’re playing someone Top-10 you are playing a lot more free.”

Rublev broke back in the opening set and got on equal footing at 4-4, but Kovacevic claimed the set with a break in the final game.

There were no breaks through nine games in the second set, but Kovacevic again came through, breaking Rublev in the final game of the match to seal his victory in one hour and 36 minutes.



“The way that I got the break in the first set right away, was being aggressive,” he said. “There’s no reason to not be, if you let Andrey play on his front foot it’s gonna be a very tough time. It’s tough to do because he is hitting such a big ball. I played really well today, I played a lot of first balls and made them – can’t complain.”

Auger-Aliassime defeated Kovacevic in their only previous meeting, 6-3, 6-1 in the round of 64 at Cincinnati last year.

The Canadian will bid for his seventh ATP title in his 17th final.

Auger-Aliassime leads all ATP players with 52 indoor match wins since the start of 2022. He has also won 14 consecutive matches against players ranked outside of the Top 100.

“Couple of months ago he kicked my butt,” Kovacevic said, referring to their lopsided Cincy tussle. “I’m playing a lot better than I did back then, so looking forward to the challenge.”