In-form Rublev eases past Fritz to reach Madrid Open final

Andrey Rublev reached his first Madrid Open final with a 6-4 6-3 win over American Taylor Fritz on Friday, as the Russian seventh seed continued his return to form at the claycourt tournament.Rublev, the highest seed left in the tournament at the semi-final stage, survived an early wobble to see off the 12th seed, and was all smiles after his straight-sets win, and will now be favourite to claim his second title of the year.Fritz broke serve in the opening game, with the Russian showing early signs of frustration, but Rublev composed himself to break back immediately and ended the set winning two games to love to take the opener.The second set went with serve until Rublev broke to lead 4-2 and it ended in a similar vein to the first, this time the Russian winning his final two service games to love, closing the gap in their head-to-head record, with four wins and five losses."Mentally I was feeling much better and I was able to perform,” said Rublev, when asked what had changed upon arriving in Madrid. "Putting emotions in the right direction,” he added."For sure it has helped me to reach the final."Without this, I would not be in the final."I started really tight. I missed a couple of returns, a couple of easy shots, but it is part of sport and part of tennis,” explained Rublev."When he broke me, I thought, ‘OK, it is only the beginning, we have a long set and we will see. Maybe he will also not start well on his serve’."In the end, I think in the first three points he didn’t hit a first serve, so I was able to win and it was 0/30."On one break point I played well, and somehow it was 1-1. Then the match was equal until the end of the set.”Rublev came into the tournament on a four-match losing streak, but has eased into the final, knocking out second seed Carlos Alcaraz on the way.Rublev will now face unseeded Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime in the final. Auger-Aliassime on Friday won with a walkover over Czech 30th seed Jiri Lehecka. It will be his first Masters 1000 final. The semi-final was tied 3-3 all when Lehecka pulled out with an injury on Friday.