Kyrios stunned Rublev! The Russian lost with a bobblehead to the Australian in Miami
Russian Andrey Rublev unexpectedly for many lost with a “tap” to the main showman of the tour, Nick Kiryos. The Australian stunned our guy with his focus and terrific serve.
At a major tennis tournament in Miami, the seeded tennis players entered the fray. The situation for women was just disastrous. Only three seeded tennis players from the upper half of the net reached the third round. Sobolenko, Radukan, Pliskova, Kontaveit and other notable players lost. In the bottom half of the net, 16-year-old Czech Linda Fruchvirtova made a sensation as she defeated No. 20 seed Elise Mertens of Belgium. The eliminations were No. 10 seeded Elena Ostapenko of Latvia, Sorana Cirstia of Romania (24) and Russia’s Lyudmila Samsonova (29). In the men’s second round matches on Friday night Moscow time has just begun. But there are already losses among the seeds. Italian Matteo Berrettini (4) dropped out of the tournament because of an arm injury.
Four Russians are participating in their second Masters this season – top-seeded Daniil Medvedev (1), Karen Khachanov (23), Andrey Rublev (5) and Aslan Karatsev (29). Unlike the women, the first ones to start were the representatives of the lower half of the net, only Andrey Rublev was among our players. Andrey has been showing phenomenal results the last few weeks. He reached the semifinals of the ATP500 Rotterdam, won the ATP250 in Marseille and the ATP500 in Dubai. At the just-finished Indian Wells Masters he made it to the semifinals, where only future champion Taylor Fritz could stop his winning streak of 13 matches.
After the draw of the tournament it became clear that for Andrei the opening fight would be one of the most important ones at the tournament, because his potential opponent for the 2nd round would be the Australian Nick Kiryos. Nick has been playing quite infrequently in recent months, so he fell outside the top 100 in the rankings. The organizers even had to give him a wild card. In the 1st round, Kiryos quite confidently defeated Adrian Mannarino of France, and then came out on Rublev. Up to that point, Andrei and Nick had met only twice. In 2018, Kyrios beat our tennis player in the 1st round of the Kremlin Cup. And a year later at the US Open in the fight for access to the 4th round was stronger already Andrei.
Ahead of their match against Rublev, Kyrios shared his thoughts about his opponent and the upcoming match: “We grew up together; I’ve seen him play. He’s a tough player. Of course we all know what he’s capable of. I’m going into this match as another underdog. But I feel confident in my abilities. If I can serve well and play well on the baseline, I can beat any opponent. And everyone understands that. I’m looking forward to meet Rublev.
Shamil Tarpischev, President of the Russian Tennis Federation (RTF), also believes Kyrios is capable of breaking Rublev’s game, but the Russian has his own trump card: “It will be difficult for Rublev. Kyrios likes to tear up the game. Andrei needs to play his tennis and the most important thing is not to fall apart. Nick is capable of breaking Rublev’s game, so Andrei needs to be very careful. He’s got to avoid stupid mistakes and a level loss.
FizzslotsNEWS
