The Russian Andrey Rublev, world No.5 and seeded No.1, had a hard time getting rid of the Briton Liam Broady, from qualifying, whom he ended up beating 6-4, 7-6 (10 /8) in the second round of the ATP 250 tournament in Hong Kong on Thursday.
Rublev will meet Arthur Fils 5″-E° in the quarter-finals. The 19-year-old Frenchman, finalist in early December of the Next Gen ATP Finals, the Masters for under-22s, beat, also with difficulty, the Swiss Marc-Andrea Huesler (194th) 7-5, 7-5.
Rublev quickly led 3 games to 0 in this meeting which seemed to take a one-way direction. But his opponent, a modest 108th in the world, came back, and the Russian only won this first round 6-4.
The world No.5 then lost his serve at the start of the second round, then lost his footing: his old demons resurfaced when the player, after several unforced errors, threw a big kick at the advertising boards in anger. placed behind him at the baseline. Having managed to regain his composure, Rublev nevertheless managed to take Broadby’s serve as he served to win the set at 5-4.
The two players had to resort to a tiebreaker to decide between them. In this one, Rublev saved three set points, before ending the game on his first match point, after 1 hour 50 minutes of play.
