Ugo Humbert has confirmed himself Top-10 kryptonite throughout his profession, however Andrey Rublev confronted no such problem Sunday.
The World No. 7 eradicated the Frenchman 7-5, 6-3 to succeed in the Round of 16 on the BNP Paribas Open. He will face 2021 champion Cameron Norrie for a spot within the quarter-finals.
“Completely different, even if he’s left-handed as well, but he’s different. Cameron reminds me a bit of Medvedev to be honest,” Rublev stated in his on-court interview. “He likes to play really low and flat with the backhand. He likes to counter-attack, wait for you to do mistakes, to force you to go for extra shots. So we’ll see. It’s going to be a really tough match and we’ll see what’s going to happen.”
Rublev will take a 2-1 ATP Head2Headvert lead into his conflict with Norrie, in addition to confidence from a strong efficiency towards Humbert. The Frenchman, who’s now 7-7 towards Top 10 opposition, surged to a right away break benefit.
But it was all Rublev from there. The sixth seed transformed 4 of his six break possibilities to earn revenge for a loss towards Humbert within the Halle last two years in the past.
“He started really well. He broke me and I was thinking, ‘I don’t know, probably today is not my day.’ I was not feeling the ball really well in there beginning because the first match I played at night and it was completely different conditions today,” Rublev stated. “But then I began to say, ‘Okay it’s not my day, he’s higher and that’s it.’
“And somehow I made a few returns, I broke him back and then I started to feel confident. I started to play even better. I started to serve better and in the end, little by little, I was able to finish on a good level.”
Norrie had a harder time in a 6-7(5), 7-5, 6-2 overcome qualifier Taro Daniel, who led by a set and a break. The British lefty saved his hopes of a second Indian Wells title alive behind 11 aces and 7 service breaks.
Norrie has loads of momentum after profitable the largest clay-court title of his profession on the ATP 500 in Rio de Janeiro, the place he clawed previous Carlos Alcaraz within the last.
Source web site: www.atptour.com
