Will be Andrey Rublev the opponent of Jannik Sinner in the quarter finals dell’Australian Open. The Russian tennis player, number 5 in the world, eliminated his home idol Alex De Minaur after a long battle 5 set (6-4, 6-7, 6-7, 6-3, 6-0). Twenty-six years old, born in Moscahas conquered 15 career titlesincluding the Master 1000 in Monte Carlo during 2023. Before making his way into the Slam which opens the season of major tournaments, Rublev won a Hong Kong causing his professional earnings to rise to $21.65 million.
Last season Sinner and Rublev clashed twice. In the semifinals a Viennawhere the South Tyrolean had won 7-5 7-6, and in the round of 16 Miami. Also in Florida, the Italian tennis player emerged victorious in two sets (6-2 6-4). In total Sinner’s successes were four out of six face to face. Rublev’s only hurrahs came due to the blue’s withdrawal, in 2022 in the round of 16 Roland Garros and in 2020 in Vienna.
With no small amount of irony (and perhaps a little of superstition) the Russian in fact commented on his next opponent like this after the victory over De Minaur: “Jannik is another player who has had a unreal season last year and already surprising results this year. He beat me last time so I don’t know what to say: Looks like I’m in trouble.”. After beating Karen KhachanovSinner had instead concentrated on great compliments to the Australian public, joking about the possibility of meeting the home idol De Minaur in the quarterfinals: “In that case it won’t be an environment all for me…”, he joked. She went differently.
And now Sinner is ready to play his cards against the Russian. Whoever wins the challenge will then have to face one of them Nole Djokovic e Taylor Fritz, who will meet in the other quarter-final on the left side of the Australian Open draw. Sinner reaches the quarterfinals without having lost a single set: to the Dutch Botic from the Zandschulp e Jesper de Jong, at the top seed no. 26 Sebastian Baez and to Khachanov he left a total of just 34 game.
Rublev’s path was different: he had to face a complicated debut against the Brazilian Thiago Seyboth Wildovercome in 5 sets, then defeated Christopher Eubanks e Sebastian Korda in three sets, before playing the beauty of 4 hours and 14 minutes against De Minaur. Total spent on the pitch? Eleven hours and 40 minutes. Sinner instead reaches the quarterfinals with 8 hours of gameplay behind. Practically one game less, albeit a hard-fought one. On the night between Tuesday and Wednesday, all this could count.