Rublev's game of aces assists rain-delay turnaround in Washington

pTop seed a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/andrey-rublev/re44/overview'Andrey Rublev/a raised his level after a two-and-a-half hour rain delay Wednesday at the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/washington/418/overview'Mubadala Citi DC Open/a, rallying past #NextGenATP Frenchman a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/luca-van-assche/v0dz/overview'Luca Van Assche/a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 to reach the Round of 16./p
prdquo;I was playing much better after I came back from the rain. Before the rain, I could not put more than two balls [in]. I was missing all over the place,rdquo; Rublev said in his on-court interview. ldquo;I was even laughing inside of myself because it was something unreal. I never remember myself missing that much. Literally I could not put two balls inside the court. I was a bit shocked./p
p"Somehow, because of this pause because of the rain, I was able to calm down, to think a bit. lsquo;Okay, letrsquo;s try maybe different thinking.rsquo; And in the end, it worked."/p
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pThe World No. 8 in the PIF ATP Rankings committed 18 unforced errors in the opening set and trailed 4-6, 3-2 when play was interrupted due to rain. Rublev quickly rebounded following the suspension, breaking Van Assche in his second service game after the resumption and rocketing four aces in a row to send the match into a decider./p
pA two-time Washington semi-finalist, Rublev dug out of a 0/40 hole at 4-3 in the final set, tallying five consecutive points. He closed the match after one hour, 42 minutes./p
p
Rublev next faces 16th seed a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/arthur-rinderknech/rc91/overview'Arthur Rinderknech/a. The 16-time tour-level titlist won their lone Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting in four sets at last yearrsquo;s a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/us-open/560/overview'US Open/a. Rinderknech advanced Wednesday following Shang Juncheng's retirement due to lower back pain after five games./p
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#NextGenATP a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/alex-michelsen/m0qi/overview'Alex Michelsen/a began his Washington campaign with a 6-3, 7-6(1) win against Italian qualifier a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/mattia-bellucci/b0gg/overview'Mattia Bellucci/a. Following his win, the 19-year-old Michelsen is up one place in the PIF ATP Live Race To Jeddah, only behind Frenchman a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/arthur-fils/f0f1/overview'Arthur Fils/a, who has more than double the American's points./ppdiv
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Up next for Michelsen is South Korean a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/seongchan-hong/hc21/overview'Seongchan Hong/a, who upset third seed a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/karen-khachanov/ke29/overview'Karen Khachanov/a 6-2, 6-4 for just his fifth tour-level win./p
pSeventh seed a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/jordan-thompson/tc61/overview'Jordan Thompson/a, a finalist last week in Atlanta, defeated a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/reilly-opelka/o522/overview'Reilly Opelka/a 6-4, 6-3. Thompson neutralised the 6’11” American’s serve, winning 75 per cent of his second-serve return points and converting four of his seven break chances./pp

The Australian next meets another hefty server in ninth seed a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/giovanni-mpetshi-perricard/m0gz/overview'Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard/a. The Frenchman crushed 25 aces en route to a 7-6(6), 7-6(6) victory against a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/emil-ruusuvuori/rh24/overview'Emil Ruusuvuori/a. Eighth seed a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/alejandro-davidovich-fokina/dh50/overview'Alejandro Davidovich Fokina/a ousted a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/mitchell-krueger/kc12/overview'Mitchell Krueger/a 3-6, 7-6(3), 6-4./p
p[NEWSLETTER FORM]/p