{"id":12258,"date":"2023-04-16T16:07:55","date_gmt":"2023-04-16T16:07:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/tennis-rublev-gets-long-awaited-reward\/"},"modified":"2023-04-16T16:09:31","modified_gmt":"2023-04-16T16:09:31","slug":"tennis-rublev-gets-long-awaited-reward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/tennis-rublev-gets-long-awaited-reward\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennis-Rublev gets long-awaited reward with Monte Carlo title"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Reuters) – Andrey Rublev made the most of Holger Rune’s nerves to win a see-saw Monte Carlo final 5-7 6-2 7-5 on Sunday, as the Russian’s talent was finally rewarded with a Masters title. <\/p>\n

The fifth seed stayed composed when it mattered to eventually run down his 19-year-old opponent and claim the most prestigious title of his career.<\/p>\n

Rublev, 25, was 4-1 down in the decider but ground his way back into the contest to prevail on his second match point with an ace at a sun-drenched Monte Carlo Country Club.<\/p>\n

It was Rublev’s third attempt in a Masters final after failing at the final hurdle here in Monte Carlo and in Cincinnati in 2021.<\/p>\n

“I don’t know what to say, I’m just happy, I struggled so much to get this title,” said Rublev.<\/p>\n

Rune, who burst into the limelight at last year’s French Open when he reached the quarter-finals, needed nearly three hours to beat Italian Jannik Sinner in the semi-finals.<\/p>\n

Rublev also needed three sets to beat American Taylor Fritz, and fatigue was a factor in Sunday’s showdown.<\/p>\n

Rune, the youngest Monte Carlo finalist after Rafael Nadal in 2005, opened a 4-2 lead in the first set on his second opportunity to break, only for an unforced forehand error to allow Rublev to break right back.<\/p>\n

The Russian, however, bowed under pressure in the seventh game as he sent a forehand long to lose his second service game and give Rune the opening set.<\/p>\n

After an early exchange of breaks, Rune netted a routine shot to drop serve again before Rublev held for 4-2 in the second set.<\/p>\n

The Russian then broke to love and levelled the contest on serve as Rune seemed to lose his composure.<\/p>\n

The Dane, however, found gravity-defying angles to break first in the decider, moving 3-0, and 4-1 ahead.<\/p>\n

But Rublev did not surrender and after breaking in the seventh game, he broke Rune’s serve again as the Dane received a warning for angrily sending the ball into the crowd in the 11th game.<\/p>\n

\n

(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Toby Davis)<\/p>\n

\"tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3F05O-VIEWIMAGE\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3F05P-VIEWIMAGE\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3F05Q-VIEWIMAGE\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3F05N-VIEWIMAGE\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3F05R-VIEWIMAGE\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3F05S-VIEWIMAGE\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Reuters) – Andrey Rublev made the most of Holger Rune’s nerves to win a see-saw Monte Carlo final 5-7 6-2 7-5 on Sunday, as the Russian’s talent was finally rewarded with a Masters title. The fifth seed stayed composed when it mattered to eventually run down his 19-year-old opponent and claim the most prestigious title […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":12259,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1219],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-u-s-sports"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-content\/uploads\/Reuters_Direct_Media\/USOnlineReportSportsNews\/tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3F05O-VIEWIMAGE.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12258"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12265,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12258\/revisions\/12265"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}