Andrey Rublev shines on busy day in Montreal

No. 5 seed Andrey Rublev of Russia capped a busy Saturday with an upset of the No. 1 seed, topping Jannik Sinner of Italy 6-3, 1-6, 6-2 in the quarterfinals of the National Bank Open in Montreal.

Rublev saved 10 of 12 break points for the match and overcame an ugly second set by winning the first three games of the third en route to his second victory of the day. He previously dispatched American qualifier Brandon Nakashima 6-2, 6-2. The Russian finished with 22 winners against six unforced errors, while Nakashima had nine and 13, respectively.

“I don’t know, not much to say,” Rublev said after knocking off Sinner. “Jannik is an amazing player and he’s playing unbelievable for the past two years. I was just hoping that I would be able to fight with him, to show great tennis.

“In the end, I think we had a lot of great rallies, a lot of long rallies.”

Sinner was also in action earlier Saturday, with his 6-4, 6-3 sweep of No. 15 seed Alejandro Tabilo of Chile setting up the meeting with Rublev.

Sinner won 23 of 25 first-serve points (92 percent) and collected 16 winners to Tabilo’s 12 to punch his ticket to the quarterfinals.

“Tricky opponent, tricky conditions,” Sinner said of his meeting with Tabilo. “It is difficult playing against this type of player. Huge lefty, big potential. I had to be very careful, looking a lot to make the game. It felt like a good match.”

Tropical Storm Debby rolled through Montreal on Friday, postponing all matches and forcing some players — like Rublev and Sinner — to play twice on Saturday.

Among those two-match competitors were French qualifier Arthur Rinderknech and No. 4 seed Hubert Hurkacz of Poland. They faced off in the third round, and Hurkacz came away with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory.

Earlier in the day, Rinderknech ousted Italy’s Flavio Cobolli 6-3, 6-2, while Hurkacz picked up a 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (6) win over Australian qualifier Thanasi Kokkinakis.

Hurkacz will collide with Australia’s Alexei Popyrin in the quarterfinals.

Popyrin rallied to pull off a 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-3 upset of No. 7 seed Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria. Popyrin saved 8 of 9 break points in that match.

The United States’ Sebastian Korda also turned back a seeded foe, eliminating countryman and ninth seed Taylor Fritz with a 6-4, 7-6 (4) sweep.

In other action, No. 2 seed Alexander Zverev topped 13th-seeded Dane Holger Rune, Italian Matteo Arnaldi sank Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain via retirement and Japan’s Kei Nishikori beat Nuno Borges of Portugal. Nishikori is playing on a protected ranking.

After his win over Fritz, Korda got past Norwegian and No. 6 seed Casper Ruud due to a walkover, putting him in the quarterfinals.

Arnaldi downed Nishikori 6-4, 7-5 to close the nightcap.

–Field Level Media