Australian Open | Andrey Rublev back in week two

(Melbourne) Andrey Rublev, 6^e world, will find the 8^are final of the Australian Open after his victory without contest against the Briton Daniel Evans (30^e) 6-4, 6-2, 6-3 which gave him a banana during the game on Saturday in Melbourne.

“I asked a ball boy (to get me a banana), but Danny who had asked earlier had two, so he sent me one,” Rublev said.

“And that banana gave me extra energy!” “Launched the 25-year-old Russian with a smile.

He had played all 8^are and the quarter-finals in 2020 and 2021, but failed in the third round last year.

To find the quarters in Melbourne, he will face the Dane Holger Rune on Monday (10^e) or the Frenchman Ugo Humbert (106^e).

Rublev also played quarterfinals at Roland-Garros (2020 and 2022) and at the United States Open (2017, 2020 and 2022), but never reached the last four. He never made it past 8^are final at Wimbledon.

Rune too strong for Humbert

Holger Rune, 10^e world, was too strong for the Frenchman Ugo Humbert (106^e) whom he eliminated 6-4, 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) on Saturday in the third round of the tournament, to join the Russian Andrey Ruble in 8^are of final.

“The third set was very tough, Ugo was serving very well,” said the 19-year-old Dane, winner of the Masters 1000 in Paris in November, but who nearly suffered a serious injury in a fall in the first game of the second set on Saturday. .

At the end of the race, he twisted his right ankle and hurt his right wrist when he fell. He remained lying down for a moment and then seated on the court, before having his ankle bandaged when he changed sides.

But he resumed and finished the match a priori without any real embarrassment.

“I was in a bit of pain, but the doctor told me there was nothing so I tried not to notice it,” he explained.

Humbert, who held the shock very well in the third set, led 4/2 in the tiebreaker, but finally bowed by sending his last forehand into the net.

Rune is taking part in his second Australian Open: last year he lost outright, before reaching the quarter-finals at Roland-Garros, his best result in a Major so far.