As the Australian Open moves into the quarter-final stage, the draws for the top eight players are decided. Andrey Rublev of Russia will face Jannik Sinner of Italy in the second quarter-final. After both players’ nail-biting fourth-round clashes, Sinner and Rublev will lock horns on Tuesday at 9 pm at the Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne.
Sinner has been touted as one of the favorites to dethrone Novak Djokovic by many, especially former World No. 7 Barbara Schett. And he is continuing his blazing form in the tournament similarly. On the other hand, his Russian opponent just beat one of the tougher opponents in the tournament to reach the quarter-finals – Alex de Minaur of Australia.
Rublev went into his match with de Minaur as the favorite based on his current form. But he lagged behind the Australian in head-to-head counts by 3-2. de Minaur took advantage of that in the second and third sets against Rublev, until the Russian bounced back and won the contest. The score was 6-4, 6-7 (5-7), 6-7 (5-7), 6-3, 6-0. Sinner defeated Russian-Armenian Karen Khachanov 6-4, 7-5, 6-3 in a game that barely saw the young Italian taste defeat before advancing to the quarter-finals.
Interestingly, Rublev and Sinner match up quite appropriately with one another. While Sinner is ranked and seeded 4, Rublev is just behind him at 5. Both of them had barely let any game go past the third set in this tournament. This was until Rublev’s win against de Minaur whereas Sinner continued winning every match in straight sets.
The Italian is currently going through a purple patch from last year when he defeated Novak Djokovic at the ATP Finals 2023 Group Stage and the Davis Cup 2023 semi-finals. He brought that form right into the Majors this season. Whereas, Rublev is a master at making it count in big stages of tournaments. He had reached 9 Grand Slam quarter-finals before and this Majors just became his 10th. However, he has never gone past the Top 8 stage in Grand Slams.
While it promises to be a major spectacle, The Sports Rush predicts Jannik Sinner to win the match in 4 sets. This is despite his inexperience, his youthful exuberance and current form might get him the better of Rublev.
How has Jannik Sinner fared against Andrey Rublev so far?
Sinner and Rublev have faced each other six times in their careers so far, with Sinner taking a consolidated lead. The Italian has won 4 out of their previous 6 clashes. They first met at the Erste Bank Open in 2020 where Rublev won the Round of 16 encounter between the two.
The next time was in the 2021 Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell quarter-finals where Sinner took his revenge by 6-2, 7-6 (8-6). He won their next meet too in the 2022 ATP Masters 1000 Monte-Carlo where Sinner won 5-7, 6-1, 6-3. By this time, Sinner had already started getting the better of the two. They met again in 2023 at Roland Garros where Rublev won the match 1-6, 6-4, 2-0.
The head-to-head count was 2-2. Right after that, Sinner won against him at the ATP Masters 1000 in Miami Round of 16 clash. The score was 6-2, 6-4. Sinner repeated his prowess against him in the Erste Bank Open in Vienna again in 2023. Unlike last time in Vienna, Sinner beat Rublev by 7-5, 7-6 (7-5).
With 79% effectiveness on first serve win, Sinner is ahead of Rublev with his 59% on that aspect too. Both will look to put a stop to Djokovic’s 25th Grand Slam victory.
