No. 5 seed Andrey Rublev captured the Rolex Monte Carlos Masters championship on Sunday, coming from behind for a 5-7, 6-2, 7-5 victory against Danish teenager Holger Rune in Monaco.
The resilient Russian, who also rallied in the semifinals for a 5-7, 6-1, 6-3 win against Taylor Fritz, trailed 1-4 in the deciding set against the sixth-seedeed Rune, 19.
Rublev, 25, collected his maiden ATP Masters 1000 title (and 13th overall) in two hours and 34 minutes, clinching the trophy with his fifth ace of the match.
“I have tears,” Rublev said. “I don’t know what to say. I am so happy. I have been struggling so much to win a Masters 1000 tournament. Trailing 1-4, love-30, then saving some break points, thinking there is no chance to win. But somehow I did it.”
Rublev lost his two previous appearances in ATP Masters 1000 finals against Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas in Monte Carlo and Germany’s Alexander Zverev in Cincinnati — both in 2021.
Rublev finished with 34 winners and eight unforced errors. Rune, the first teen to reach the Monte Carlo final since a 19-year-old Rafael Nadal won the tournament in 2006, had 29 winners with 22 unforced errors and offset his six aces with nine double faults.
Rublev won six of the last seven games in the deciding set, breaking Rune’s serve in the seventh and 11th games to improve to 2-1 in their head-to-head series.
“I was hoping deep inside that I would have one chance,” Rublev said. “Play until the end. I remember the previous finals and when I was losing I thought I’d have no chance and mentally I was going down. But today I thought, ‘Just believe until the end’, and this is what I was trying to do in the third set, hoping I would have an extra chance to come back and what a way to do it.”
Rublev won his first title since Spain’s Gijon Open in October 2022 and his first on clay since the Serbia Open in April 2022.
–Field Level Media
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