Russian will face Argentine Pella, while Austrian top seed will face French wildcard Monfils


Austria’s Dominic Thiem celebrates his win over Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece.

Andrey Rublev started playing tennis at the age of three, likes Mike Tyson and Metallica besides being addicted to “action-packed films with fighting”.
On top of that he hails from a sporting family – his father was a professional boxer and his mother and sister are tennis coaches. No surprise then that all these aspects contribute to his persona on the tennis court where he packs such a punch that his opponents can often only wonder in amazement.
Seventh-seeded veteran Fernando Verdasco certainly felt the same way when he was ousted by Rublev in the second round of the Qatar ExxonMobil Open, and yesterday at it was Croatian Borna Coric’s turn to be at the receiving end.
Russia’s Rublev, all of 20, showed once again that he is a player to watch out for in the near future as he brutally brushed aside the challenge of Coric to stay in the hunt for his second title on the ATP Tour yesterday.
“I knew since the beginning of the match that I have to try to dictate the points. I have to try to attack. I have to try to lead, but I have to try to do it with a good position. That was the key and that was the — how you say, not plan, but I was trying to do this since the beginning and I think it was working quite well,” said Rublev after his 6-3, 7-5 win.
Coric, 21, is also a rising star with two wins over Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray under his belt. But the Croatian, himself a no mean belter of the tennis ball, had no clue whatsoever against Rublev’s tremendous reach and power-packed passing shots on the centre court of the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex.
After the first three games of the first set went with serve, Rublev broke Coric in the fourth game, courtesy of a couple of scorching returns that would have left the best wanting for answers.
That saw the Russian take a comfortable 3-1 lead, which he soon extended to 4-1 after holding serve before going on to wrap up the set 6-3.
Coric was marginally better in the second set but after securing the first break in the sixth game to lead 4-2, he wasted his advantage with a poor service game to allow Rublev to break back.
Rublev secured the decisive second break in the 11th game where Coric failed to get his act together – double faulting and hitting the ball into the net once each and then sending a forehand wide.
That gave him a 6-5 edge and he comfortably held his serve to set up a last-four encounter with Guido Pella of Argentina, who defeated Bosnian qualifier Mirza Basic 6-2, 6-3.
Rublev brushed off a question if his win was much easier than expected, insisting it was actually close.
“No. I mean, he’s a great player. You can see that he beat many top players. I expected it was going to be tough to beat him today. You can see that both of us were really, really close. He had some breakpoints. He had break up. But then I came back. So it was a really tough match and it was really close.
“In the end I was a little bit luckier. Maybe I played a little bit better in some moments and then I won the match.”
Rublev, who won the Croatian Open in Umag last year – his only ATP title to date – could become only the second Russian to pocket the Qatar title after Nikolay Davydenko, who beat Nadal in the 2010 final.
“First, I didn’t expect that I’m going to be in the semifinal. I mean, I was expecting that I want to go as far as I can, to do my best, as best as I can. And that’s it. And we’ll see. If it’s second round, it’s second round. If it’s first round, it’s first round. But to do my best, to give everything, that was the main goal for the tournament.
“In the end, now I’m in the semifinal and tomorrow I’m playing a really good player. I know that last year he beat many top players, many good wins. He did final of ATP from quallies, so this means that he’s playing tennis really well.”
Meanwhile, Dominic Thiem, the last among the seeds standing in Doha, defeated Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas 7-5, 6-4 to reach the semis.
The world No 5 hit 33 winners against the 6’4” Tsitsipas, who had upset French veteran and 2013 Qatar champion Richard Gasquet in straight sets on Wednesday.
“It was my best game today for sure so far. And I will try to play the same tomorrow,” said Thiem. “I know the opponents. I know (Peter) Gojowczyk, I know (Gael) Monfils. I know both of them. So it’s going to be nothing new. Both of them are really good players. Going to be fun. Doesn’t matter against who,” he said after his match even as his prospective opponents were battling it out”
The Austrian added that there is no difference in how the older generation play the younger players.
“The older generation, they want to keep us down. They want to keep us behind them. And the same is for us. When we play the younger guys, we don’t want them to take us. It’s important to make some statements to play good matches against them, so they know we are still better than them,” said the 24-year-old Thiem.
Later on it emerged that Thiem will meet Monfils in the semifinal after the Frenchman beat German Gojowczyk 6-3, 7-6 (7) in their late night match.


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