The second men’s semi-final on Friday in Adelaide, between Felix and Andrey Rublev, was a thrilling encounter worthy of a final. The Canadian will rue all of the break point chances he had but was unable to take throughout the course of the match, and will regret dropping serve in the third set right after finally breaking his opponent for the first time. Still, he can hold his head high after what was arguably an unexpectedly excellent week, one that augurs well for next week’s first major of the year.
Rublev can rarely have played better himself – the consistent power, depth and variation on his groundstrokes were never less than brilliant. A lesser player would have folded in two sets. The fact that Felix was still fighting hard in the third set, in which he actually led 3-0, says as much for his character as it does for his game.
In the opening set the Canadian saved a break point in the first and seventh games before creating three of his own at 3-4. But it was not to be – with one exception the Rublev serve was as solid as his groundstrokes throughout the match. In the ensuing tiebreak Felix immediately went down a mini-break at 0-1, then fell behind 0-3 before battling back to 5 points-all. However, he lost another service point at 5-6 and that was the first set to Rublev.
The pattern of the second set was similar to that of the first. At 1-all Felix had two break points, but couldn’t convert and had to save a break point to make it 2-all. At 4-4 Felix saved another four break points, and in the next game had Rublev 0-40, but the Russian played five excellent points in a row to leave Felix serving to stay in the match at 4-5. This he did to love, and at 5-6 saved a match point to bring up another tiebreak. Here the Canadian really showed what he was made of, coming back from 1-4 and 3-5 down to go ahead by 6 points to 5. At 6-7 he saved a second match point before taking the set on his second set point at 8-7.
At the beginning of the third set the Canadian was clearly on a high, while Rublev looked rather deflated after missing those two match points. Twelve of the first fifteen points were won by Felix, who looked like a man liberated, especially after breaking Rublev for the first time at 1-0. But the Russian was far from finished and never more dangerous than at this stage of the match. From 0-3 he won twelve of the next fourteen points, breaking Felix to love at 1-3 as he levelled the score at 3-all.
The long eighth game of this last set was crucial. Rublev recovered from 15-30 to 40-30 in it before Felix took it took to deuce. Three points later the Canadian had another break point, but it wasn’t to be. The Russian’s powers of recovery and his ability to hit a forceful shot from a disadvantageous position were never more evident than in this game. Reacting, Felix dropped serve again at 4-all before Rublev held to 30 for game, set and match in the tenth game.
Final score: 7-6(5), 6-7(7), 6-4