Andrey Rublev hits the ball as though he means to end the point and the argument at once. Every forehand is a full swing, every hold is punctuated by a shout at himself, and the racquet frame has paid the price more than once. That controlled fury climbed him to No. 5 in the world in 2021 and filled a cabinet of 19 career titles, among them the two that matter most on the calendar below the majors: the 2023 Monte Carlo Masters and the 2024 Madrid Open, his first two Masters 1000 crowns. He competes as a neutral athlete, the flag beside his name withheld under the ban on Russian players.
The one door he cannot force open is the last one. Rublev has reached the quarter-finals at all four majors, the Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open, yet he is still without a major and, more pointedly, still without a semi-final; his winless run stretched past ten Grand Slam quarter-finals. So the power keeps colliding with the moment. Against Jannik Sinner and Stefanos Tsitsipas, two of his most frequent opponents, he has traded blows for years without solving the puzzle of the second week.
Zero. That is how many ATP tour finals Luca Van Assche had reached before this week. The 22-year-old, ranked 78, won the Estoril Open on Sunday, beating Alexander Blockx 6-4 4-6 7-5 for his first tour title, in the first tour-level final of his career.
Match taleThirty-four. That is how many places Stefanos Tsitsipas climbed this week, from No. 85 to No. 51, after winning the title in Gstaad. It is the biggest move made by any tour-level titlist on the ATP rankings this week, and it carries him from the fringe of the top 90 to just outside the top 50.
Ranking tale