Andrey Rublev beats Mikhail Kukushkin 3-6 6-4 6-3 in the qualifications in Cincinnati on Sunday. Rublev will seek to keep on going in this event against Nikoloz Basilashvili in the 1st round.
Score, report, and key facts
1st set.
Kukushkin was pretty sharp at the beginning of the set after breaking Rublev in the 2nd game (2-0) before consolidating his break and lead 3-0. That break defined the set and it was sufficient for Kukushkin to win the set (6-3) since there were no other breaks anymore.
2nd set.
The set was even with both players refusing to concede anything to the opposition. Eventually, the only discrepancy was one break that Rublev conquered in the 10th game (6-4).
3rd set.
Both players managed to hold their serve for the entire set. The only difference was just 1 break that Andrey conquered in the 6th game (4-2) before winning the set (6-3).
Rublev won this match even if he scored less points than the Kazakhstani (81 vs. 82).
Andrey served very well to win 81% of the points (44/54) behind his first serve. Yet he won only 43% points (13/30) on his second serve. Rublev was great in converting all the break points (2/2). On the other side, Mikhail was battling in converting his break points as he converted only 33% of his break points (1/3). That was one of the key issues for his loss.
After this match, the head to head between Rublev and Kukushkin is 2-4 for Mikhail.
Next Match: Andrey Rublev vs. Nikoloz Basilashvili – H2H and stats
Rublev will fight against Basilashvili in the 1st round.
This will be the 3rd time that Andrey Rublev and Nikoloz Basilashvili fight against each other. The head to head is 2-0 for Basilashvili (see full H2H stats), 1-0 on hard.
The last time that they fought against each other, Basilashvili won 7-5 4-6 6-3 in the final in Hamburg back in July 2019.
