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Andrey Rublev played today against the Frenchman Adrian Mannarino, in the third round of the ATP Masters 1000 in Shanghai. In the tournament being played in China, the Russian was involved in the second round against the other Frenchman Quentin Halys.
Rublev finished with a score of 6-4 7-5 in just over an hour of play. The Russian did not grant a break point to his opponent and finished with 92% of points won with the first and 69% of first balls on the court.
In the post-match conference the Russian focused on the efficiency of his serve and return: “Yes, it was really tough.
Quentyn’s best weapons are the serve and the return. With him you really have to respond well and serve well. Today I think I served one of my best matches in a while. Same with the answer, if I had the ball on the racket I always returned the ball to the court.
Yes, so I was able to do really well with the serve return and that’s what helped me a lot to win today.”
Rublev: “I aim to improve as a player”
Rublev continued by highlighting the notable improvements in athlete services at this edition of the tournament: “I’m happy to be back.
Shanghai is a really nice tournament. The city is really beautiful. I don’t know, I have fun here. Now they have changed hotels and the official one is much better than before; then, the facilities are even better too, so there’s not much to say.
There are many good restaurants and in general the food in the club is also good, so I’m enjoying myself here.
I can only be grateful. I mean, I didn’t expect it, because the last time I was in China nothing like what’s happening this year happened.
I do not know. I was really surprised. I’m really surprised and I can only be grateful and, yes, for that, for such a warm welcome and the support that I’m receiving, it’s really something special.” Finally, he concluded by taking stock of his season, his performance in the Slams and his goal for the ATP Finals at the end of the year: “I don’t really have a set goal, to be honest.
The goal is to improve, to be better as a player. Then if somehow I can win big titles, even better. If not, continue working. Of course, I would like to go further in the Slams, but this year I reached three quarterfinals and I had never done that before, so it’s also a good result. The title won in Monte Carlo. Now the goal is to try to qualify for Turin and we’ll see what happens.”
