Rublev defeats Shapovalov, moves to Abu Dhabi final

Andrey Rubley defeated Denis Shapovalov 7-6(5) 3-6 6-4 to move on to the Mubadala World Tennis Championships final.

Two familiar faces faced off in the Abu Dhabi semifinal as Andrey Rublev took on Denis Shapovalov. It was a very well contested match with both players wanting the victory badly as shown by their emotional reaction after many points and rallies. The start of the match featured solid play by both but we still saw break points. Both Shapovalov and Rublev had to save early break points and they were able to.

In the end, the first set ended in a tiebreak where Rublev proved better as Shapovalov was unable to produce some good serving down the stretch. It came back to haunt him as Rublev was able to attack him with great success. 7-5 was the score in the tiebreak with the Russian taking the lead. That momentum did not carry early to the 2nd set as Shapovalvo was able to take a 2-0 lead.

Rublev was visibly frustrated with his play and the fact that he was down. He struggled a lot in the 2nd set with Sapovalov having break points to go up a double break but Rublev hung on. It was crucial for him because at 5-3 when Shapovalov served for the set he jumped out to a 40-15 lead. He could not convert it after some stellar serving by Shapovalov.

The 3rd set featured only two break points. Rublev had to save on in the first service game and after he did it successfully he did not fae a single one. The first one Shapovalov faced was at 5-4 for Rublev and it was actually a match point for the Russian. Once again it was the serve that betrayed Shapovalov as he served a double fault on match point. Rublev moves on to the final.