Andrei Rublev Last Sunday he celebrated the most important title of his career in tears. The Russian, number six in the world, shouted champion this Sunday in Monte Carlo Masters 1000one of the big events of the European brick dust tour before Roland Garros, beating the Danes 5-7, 6-2 and 7-5 Rune Holger, ninth in the standings and one of the most talented youngsters on the circuit. Thus, he obtained his first trophy in this category in what was his third final at this level.

“Tears escape me,” he commented, visibly moved. “I don’t know what to say, to be honest. I don’t know. I’m happy, finally. I fought so hard to win this ‘damned’ Masters 1000 tournament. In the third set I was 1-4 down, I was 0-30 on serve, saving break points against… I really thought there was no chance of winning. But somehow I did.”

The man born in Moscow 25 years ago had played in two Masters 1000 finals in his career, both in 2021. The first, in this same tournament, he lost to Stephen Tsitsipas. And in the second, in August in Cincinnati, Alexander Zverev fell. This Sunday he finally took his revenge and was the protagonist of a great comeback against a rival a few years younger (19) and more inexperienced. And he added the 13th crown of his career to him and the first this season, in which he has 18 wins and only eight losses.

“I don’t know how I did it,” Rublev acknowledged. “Deep down I was hoping to have at least one chance. Maybe trying to at least play until the end. Because I remember the previous finals, where I wasn’t mentally prepared and I came to think I no longer had any chance of winning… And I finished to surrender.”

“And in this ending at least I thought: ‘Okay, if you’re going to lose, at least believe it until the end’. And that’s what I tried to do in the third set, hoping to have one more chance to comeback or something, and in the end I succeeded.”

Rublev, who is competing under a neutral flag for the sanction imposed on his country by the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, he thanked the local public for their support. “Coming from where I come from, getting international support like this is something huge,” she enthused.

Rublev and Rune had already faced each other on two occasions, both on hard courts.

The Dane had won one, in the round of 16 Masters of Paris 1000 last year, on its way to its first — and so far only — celebration in that category. The Russian took revenge in January of this year, winning the round of 16 Australian Open. And on the brick dust of Monte Carlo, he overturned the record in his favor in a duel in which equality was the keynote in the first and third sets.

In that last chapter, Rune missed a great opportunity. Because they broke in the second game and then went away 3-0. And with the score 4-1 in his favor, he had a break point to go ahead 5-1 and serve for the match.

Rublev held on, chained three game winning streaks — with a batting average of break in the seventh – and he managed to take advantage of his rival’s nerves to break his serve again, in the 11th, and get up 6-5. And with victory close at hand, he had a great service game, in which he gave up just one point and ended the match with an ace, on his second match point.

The Russian, fifth favorite, had reached the final beating Jaume Munar in the second round (he had gone out in the first); her compatriot Karen Khachanov in the round of 16; the German Jan Lennard Struff, who had just eliminated Casper Ruud, in the quarterfinals; and Taylor Fritz, in the semifinals. And before Rune, he celebrated the most important victory of his career and proclaimed himself champion in one of the most prestigious tournaments in world tennis.