Andrey Rublev shows grit to win Madrid Open
- Planet Sport writer
- 6 May 2024
Andrey Rublev survived illness and a nightmare start to finally get the better of Felix Auger-Aliassime in the Madrid Open final on Sunday.
Auger-Aliassime raced into a 4-1 lead with two breaks of serve and eventually took the opening set 6-4, but Rublev fought back to clinch the next two sets 7-5 and secure his second Masters 1000 title.
"I have no words," Rublev said. "If you knew what I had been through in the past nine days you would not imagine that I would be able to win a title.
"I'm incredibly happy. I have to give full credit to the doctors. They were doing some tricky things and I was at least able to play.
"I would say this is the most proud title of my career. I was almost dead every day. I was not sleeping at night. The last three, four days I didn't sleep."
Rublev arrived in the Spanish capital on a run of four straight defeats, but the seventh seed found a rich vein of form and his run to the title included one of the biggest wins of his career over Carlos Alcaraz in the quarter-finals.
