Rublev wins Russian showdown with Medvedev at ATP Finals

Andrey Rublev opened his ATP Finals marketing campaign on Monday with a hard-fought 6-7 (7/9), 6-3, 7-6 (9/7) win over fellow Russian Daniil Medvedev of their opening group match.

The floppy-haired Rublev, who's making his third straight look on the season finale, had the perfect of the early exchanges and seemed to be on the right track to wrap up the primary set in fast time as he opened up a 4-1 lead.

World quantity 5 Medvedev had an inconsistent day on his serve, mixing 24 aces with eight double faults, however he battled again, saving two set factors at 5-6, to take it to a tiebreak.

Rublev, three locations decrease within the rankings and the one participant within the Inexperienced Group to not have beforehand received the Finals, rediscovered his rhythm within the second set as Medvedev once more struggled on his serve, to take the match right into a decider.

The third set once more went to a tie-break, this time with out a single break on both aspect. Medvedev saved three match factors at 3-6 within the breaker after which a fourth.

However he was powerless on the fifth match level as Rublev closed out the match, slumping on to his again after two and a half hours on court docket.

“Peace peace peace is all we want,” Rublev wrote on the tv digital camera on court docket on the finish of the match, echoing his name for peace in Ukraine when he received in Dubai in February, simply after the Russian invasion.

The opposite recreation within the Purple Group on Monday sees Novak Djokovic taking up Stefanos Tsitsipas with the Greek needing to win each match he performs this week to turn out to be year-end world primary.