Andrey Rublev came back from a quarter down to beat Casper Ruud at the Grand Final of the 2023 Ultimate Tennis Showdown (UTS) in London.
In the first match of the UTS Grand Final in London, Diego “El Peque” Schwartzman bested Benoit “The Rebel” Paire, 11-17, 14-13, 21-10, 16-17, 5-4, and after a high-quality opening match, it was time for the other two players, Casper “The Ice Man” Ruud and Andrey “Rublo” Rublev from Group A to show their qualities.
Competing on the ATP Tour before, in a much different environment, the two met seven times already, with Rublev winning five of those matches, most recently in Bastad this year. However, he didn’t start that well in London in a match played in a first-to-three-quarters format, with each quarter lasting eight minutes.
In the opening quarter, both players played solid tennis in the competition where both players have only one serve and a special “card” they can use during the quarter, which, in this case, gives them three points instead of one if they win the point after “activating” the card.
Despite the Russian showing solid level, he wasn’t able to get past the Norwegian in the opening quarter, as Ruud was able to win it 14-12.
But Rublev came to fight and he showed that in the second quarter, dominating his opponent and winning it comfortably 19-8. He then followed up on that also in the third quarter, winning it 18-12, and during the between-the-quarters interview, which is happening between every quarter played at the UTS, the Russian was in a good mood, joking with the interviewers.
“I’m quite tired, we have very intense rallies, and I got mad with you, because you with good luck only to Casper.”
Ruud, on the other hand, joked that his opponent was unplayable, and it looked like that also in the fourth quarter, when Rublev didn’t want to let the match go into the sudden death.
He made sure to finish it off in the fourth quarter, and he did, winning the match 12-14, 19-8, 18-12, 18-9, to secure his first win of the 2023 UTS Grand Final.
Both will play one more match today, on Friday, during the night session. First, Rublev will take on Schwartzman at 8pm local time, before Ruud takes on Paire at 10pm.
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