He got scared at the end of the game, but Andrey Rublev successfully passed the first part of his challenge on Monday. The Russian, seeded number 4 in Beijing, will have to win two matches during the day if he wants to reach the last four, because the rain prevented him from playing on Sunday. Facing Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, he generally mastered his subject, even if he almost got into a 3rd set, finally winning 6-4, 7-5 in 1h44 of play. In the quarter-final, he will be opposed to the surprise of this ATP 500, the Chinese guest Yunchaokete Bu, 96th in the ATP ranking.
Rublev initially did everything well in this game: after immediately breaking from 2-3 to 3-3, he stole the opposing lead a second time at 5-4 to take the lead. Then, he quickly made the difference in the second act, leading 6-4, 3-1. But he then complicated the task on his own, being joined and then broken at 4-4 while leading 40/0. Davidovich Fokina then obtained a set point on his serve, but was unable to convert it, too nervous and generous with unforced errors (28 for… 10 winning shots). And the tide finally turned in favor of the Russian, winner of the last three games.
