Madrid (Spain) – After suffering a string of defeats, falling in the third round in Indian Wells and then in the debuts in Miami, Monte Carlo and Barcelona, Russian Andrey Rublev finally won again. This Friday, he debuted with victory at the Masters 1000 in Madrid, beating Argentine qualifier Facundo Bagnis in straight sets, with partials of 6/1 and 6/4.
“It’s really nice after a while to start with a win and I’m happy with my performance. I think I played a good match, especially in the first round, being in completely different conditions compared to other tournaments, and I played at a good level”, said Rublev, who will now face home tennis player Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.
Seeded 27th, the Spaniard also opened his campaign this Friday and like Rublev, he won in straight sets, scoring a final score of 7/5 and 6/3 over Chinese Juncheng Shang, a guest of the organization. It will be the fourth time that Davidovich will meet the Russian, who won the three previous duels against the home tennis player, two on clay and one on hard court.
“This week I started to feel like I’m more relaxed. I was training well and the atmosphere was different since I arrived here. That’s why I had the feeling that I should win at least one match”, added the current number 8 in the world, whose best campaign in Madrid was the quarter-finals reached two years ago.
Shapovalov wins another and waits for Zverev
Another who has been showing signs of recovery is Canadian Denis Shapovalov, former top 10, but currently only 132nd in the world. He won the second in a row in the tournament, now defeating Argentine Tomas Etcheverry, seeded 26th, with scores of 7/6 (7-3) and 6/3. His next rival should be German Alexander Zverev, who will debut directly in the second round against Croatian Borna Coric.
In the same quadrant, Argentine Francisco Cerúndulo had better luck than his compatriot and made his debut, beating Hungarian Fabian Marozsan by 2 sets to 0, with 6/2 and 7/6 (7-5). In the third round, the 21st favorite will face the North American Tommy Paul, 15th pre-seeded, who defeated the Slovak qualifier Lukas Klien with the final score of 6/7 (5-7), 6/1 and 6/ 4.
