WATCH: Andrey Rublev digs out outrageous winner, saves three match points, wins
Andrey Rublev’s fighting spirit and his ability to come up with sublime winners helped him to avoid a shock first-round defeat at the Hamburg European Open.
Just days after winning the 14th ATP Tour singles title of his career with victory over Casper Ruud in the Swedish Open final, Rublev looked set for an early exit in Germany.
Taking on Bernabe Zapata Miralles first up at the ATP 500 event, the second seed lost the first set although he did come up with a brilliant winner in game seven of the opener.
After being given the runaround by his Spanish opponent early on in the rally, Rublev took charge with some powerful shots in the corner, but Miralles somehow got a ball to it.
One of the world No 54’s returns then clipped the net and looked like it would drop dead, but Rublev went into fifth gear and somehow managed to dig the ball out for the winning drop shot.
Miralles, though, still went on to win the set before Rublev mounted a comeback to win 5-7, 6-1, 7-6 (9-7).
After losing the opening set, Rublev dominated the second with three breaks of serve to take the match to a decider. Following no breaks in the third set, it went to a tie-breaker and Miralles looked set for victory after opening a 6-4 lead, but the world No 7 saved the two match points.
The Spaniard had another opportunity to win at 7-6, but again Rublev came up with the goods before sealing the win on his first match point.
“The feeling was that I was playing well and it was under control, but somehow I lost the first set and was frustrated,” Rublev said. “I came back and recovered mentally and won a really good second set. The third set was tough. I started to get tired and nervous, because the score is going to the tie-break and I didn’t have many chances to break him.
“The feeling was that he deserved to win. He was fighting like crazy from tough scores. When I went 0/3, I started to stress a lot. But then I played two amazing rallies and told myself to keep fighting, keep fighting… It is amazing I was able to win.”
Up next is Daniel Altmaier in the second round.
There were also wins for top seed Casper Ruud on Wednesday with the Norwegian also requiring three sets against Sebastian Baez while fourth seed Alexander Zverev needed only two sets to book his place in the quarter-final after defeating fellow German Maximilian Marterer.
