ADELAIDE, January 17, 2020
Andrey Rublev continues his fine form at the start of the new season. The 22-year-old Russian fought past Canadian young gun Felix Auger-Aliassime 7-6(5), 6-7(7), 6-4 in Friday’s semi-final of the Adelaide International to storm into his second straight championship match in 2020 following his triumph at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open in Doha last week.
In an exciting encounter at the Memorial Drive Tennis Centre, Rublev withstood 19 aces from the teenager and broke Auger-Aliassime’s serve two times to secure victory in just under three hours of play.
We couldn’t agree more @AndreyRublev97, hopefully the ‘Next Gen’ keep bringing matches like this 💪#AdelaideTennispic.twitter.com/4exDXxABPR
— Adelaide International (@AdelaideTennis) January 17, 2020
”This match was unreal,” said Rublev. “I think people enjoyed it and that is why we are playing tennis. I hope we will bring more and more matches like this.”
Rublev will face first-time ATP Tour finalist Lloyd Harris for the title. The 22-year-old South African qualifier needed two hours and nine minutes to battle past US-American Tommy Paul 6-4, 6-7(3), 6-3.
“I have never gone past the semi-finals,” Harris said after his win. “I know Tommy pretty well. I think he was nervous, as well. We were kind of sharing the nerves a little bit there in the start. But once I got through my first couple service games and started to find a little bit of rhythm in the match, then I kind of shook it off. I tried to increase my level, but it was a difficult match all in all. It was one of those days where I felt like, okay, I wasn’t at 100 per cent, I wasn’t playing my best, but somehow I managed to battle through it. So that was amazing for me.”
Rublev and Harris will meet for the first time on the ATP Tour.
”I know that [Harris] is a tough player. He won so many great matches here,” said Rublev. “He is my age. We played juniors in the past, so it is going to be interesting. It is going to be one more battle between two young guys and we will see what is going to happen.”
