Last night, Beijing time, the final of the Marseille Open began. The two sides were third seed Aliasim and second seed Rublev.
The tournament's top seed was Greek Tsitsipas, but he was knocked out in the quarter-finals. Coincidentally, the top three seeds of the Marseille Open all participated in the just-concluded Rotterdam race.
The two had met at the recently concluded Rotterdam tournament, when Aliasim defeated Lubrev, known as the king of the 500 races, in the semi-finals.
In the final, he went a step further, successfully winning Tsitsipas, breaking through this layer of window paper, and winning his first tour title.
Don't look at Marseille as just a 250-level event, but both sides in the final are among the world's top ten players. Coupled with the fact that this is a back-to-back confrontation, it is quite interesting.
After the opening, the two quickly got into shape. You come and go, and the quality of the game is good. The two sides fought until 5-5, and Rublev suddenly went on a difficult trip to score four points in a row, breaking the Canadian black's serve.
The Russians certainly wouldn't have wasted such a rare opportunity, and at 7-5, Rublev won the first set.
YiBian fought again, but Rublev was still unforgiving. The break point was forced out in the first set, and although Aliassim barely managed to save his serve, he lost his own serve in the fifth set.
There is no way to retreat, if there is no way to break back, then two sets of rapid defeat is a matter of high probability. But who would have thought so fast? In the blink of an eye, the Canadian achieved a comeback.
In the last few innings of this game, both sides became point boys. Here Aliassim was again broken, allowing Rublev to enter the game, but immediately scored four consecutive points, leaving the opponent useless.
Taking advantage of the chase, the Canadian even took the set when he entered the opponent's unavoidable serve with a 6-5 lead, but in the end he could only compete by grabbing the 71st.
In the seventh, Rublev felt steady and finally won 7-4 with a 3-0 lead to win the final championship.
The victorious Russian breathed a long sigh of relief and could see that he had been living under pressure all this time.
After all, the competition is still not performing well, and even the 500 tournaments on which he is famous are not guaranteed. But the just-in-time Marseille title may give him a boost of confidence.
Next, the two will move to Dubai, I don't know if they will meet again? Will Rublev, who has won his ninth career title, continue to make a difference in the 500? What will happen to Aliassim, who has experienced the first championship and then the asians? (Source: Tennis House Author: Luo ChengQiye)