Andrey Rublev was up first on Court Simonne-Mathieu playing against Kevin Anderson. Rublev was coming off a huge comeback when he beat American Sam Querrey down two sets to none and managed to pull off a five-set win. Anderson was coming off a three-set win over Serbian Dusan Lajovic.
Fast start for the Russian :
Rublev came out the faster of both players with a love service game to win the first game of the set. He went on in the following game to create break opportunities and broke the South African serve with a solid forehand winner.
He had no problem consolidating the break and in eight minutes Anderson was already down 3-0. The 118th ranked player in the world finally got on the scoreboard but was facing pressure early on.
The rest of the set went on serve and the Russian would serve it out to take the first set 6-3 in 33 minutes.
Continued Dominance :
The 12th ranked player in the world continued his dominance into the second set and a double fault from the 34-year-old gave him early breakpoints once again. The Moscow native would break when the Johannesburg native sent a ball out.
He would hold serve to go up 2-0 and at 3-1 he had a chance to increase his lead when he had three more breakpoints. Rublev would end up once again forcing the error from Anderson to go up 4-1. He would serve out the second set to take it 6-2 and was one set away from the round of 16.
The Closer :
After playing a five-set marathon in the previous round, the Russian was keen on finishing this one early. The first two sets had been completed in 57 minutes and it looked like it was one-way traffic. The third set was probably the most competitive of the three played.
For the first four games, both players did a good job holding serve and it gave slight hope the South African could somehow come back into this match. That's when Rublev went to work on getting the break and managed to get the first two breakpoints of the set and would end up breaking to take a 3-2 lead.
The next two games went on serve and at 5-3 Anderson was serving to stay in the match. Rublev went for the kill getting a match point at 30-40 but the South African with his big serve would save it. The Russian had two more chances to win the match and, at the third match point, he would return Anderson serve down the line for a winner to take the set and the match.
He will next face either Hungarian Marton Fucsovics or Thiago Monteiro of Brazil in the fourth round.