Master class from Rublev
The main events of this week are concentrated in Washington. The US capital simultaneously hosts the ATP 500 and WTA 250 tournaments. The men's tradition is much more serious, it has been held for more than half a century. It is interesting that during this time the Russians have never won it. And even they got to the finals only twice with an interval of 20 years. In 1999, Yevgeny Kafelnikov lost to Andre Agassi, who became the champion here a record five times, and in 2019, Medvedev lost to Australian brawler Nick Kyrgios.
Now, under the first number in the District of Columbia, the Russian Andrey Rublev, who is generally considered the master of the "half-thousanders", is "seeded". He began his “trip to Washington” with a match with Briton Jack Draper. We are all used to thinking of Andrei as a young tennis player, but Draper is already a representative of the next generation: this very textured player with a height of 190 cm and a weight of 90 kilos is four years younger than Rublev.
Draper is still little known to those who do not follow men's tennis outside of the ATP Tour. But he already has seven titles in the futures series and four victories in the Challengers this season, which allowed Jack to get into the top 100. It is interesting that he has less than three dozen matches on the tour, but he has already lost to Rublev - it was on the clay "master" in Madrid. At the same time, the Briton managed to hook the first set from Andrey and generally resisted as best he could.