2 Things that stood out in Andrey Rublev's QF win over Alexander Zverev at Vienna Open
Third seed Andrey Rublev of Russia beat fifth seed Alexander Zverev of Germany 6-1 6-7 6-3 in the quarterfinal of the Erste Bank Open last Friday, Oct. 27.
The match lasted for around two and a half hours, as the 26-year-old Russian continued his good run in 2023. Zverev, meanwhile, fought hard but had to finish second-best on the day. Rublev will face second seed Jannik Sinner in the semifinal on Saturday.
While Sinner is in very good form at the moment, Rublev will fancy his chances of reaching the final against the Italian. On that note, let us take a look at two things that stood out in the quarterfinal match:
#1. Andrey Rublev was very dominant from his ad court
Andrey Rublev dominated proceedings from his ad court throughout the match. His inside-in and inside-out forehands and down-the-line backhand from the ad court won him points repeatedly. He thus made Alexander Zverev stretch towards his right side and thereby kept the 26-year-old German under pressure.
Zverev ventured into the forecourt often in an attempt to build some pressure on Andrey Rublev, but that did not quite work out fully. The Russian broke Zverev twice in the first set to race through it and stamp his authority quite early in the match.
At the end of the first set, Zverev looked quite clueless and had to alter his tactics to bounce back into the match.
#2. Zverev played the angles more often as the match progressed, but Rublev was too strong
Zverev started playing his inside-out forehand and crosscourt backhand with a sharper angle to make Rublev stretch towards his backhand side from the second set onward. It did not allow the Russian to go around his backhand to hit his inside-in forehand or his down-the-line backhand as often as he did in the first set.
Zverev thus managed to take the second set into a tie-break and then also won it quite convincingly to draw level. However, Rublev then got the decisive break of serve in the third set again and went on to finish the match off.
Andrey Rublev converted three of the 10 break point opportunities that came his way, but Zverev was not able to convert any of his six. Zverev hit 12 aces against Rublev's six in the match, but won 74% of the points on his first serve, as compared to Rublev's 79%. That made a significant difference in deciding the outcome of the match.