The French Adrian mannarino He gave this Thursday a great surprise by eliminating the great favorite to victory in the Kremlin Cup, ATP 250 from Moscow, the Russian Andrey Rublev: 5-7, 7-6 (4) and 6-3.
Rublev, number six in the world who turned 24 years old yesterday, took the first set, but Mannarino survived in the second, tracing a match ball with 5-6 and 30-40.
After winning the tiebreak, Mannarino, number 54 in the world, achieved nine direct aces and subtracted better than the local tennis player, who was never able to regain control of the match in the third set.
Rublev seemed to pay for the fatigue accumulated after his participation in Indian wells, tournament in which he played in the doubles final with his compatriot Karatsev.
At 33, the Frenchman has only won one tournament in his entire career. It was in 2019 on the Rosmalen grass.
Now local hopes for a tournament that pay out more than $ 700,000 in prize money lie with Karatsev and Khachanov.