Fourth seed Andrey Rublev continues his roll at ATP World Tour 500 events, ousting second seed Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-3, 7-6 (2) in the semifinals of the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament.
The Russian struck 34 winners and won his 19th straight match at an ATP 500 tournament and evened his head-to-head with the Greek at three wins apiece.
Rublev turns in solid effort to defeat Tsitsipas
After each man opened the match with a hold, Tsitsipas double-faulted on break point to hand Rublev an early 2-1 lead. The Russian then saved break points in each of his next three service games to claim a 5-3 edge.
Rublev fired off a forehand winner, a common theme in this match, to bring up triple set point and he converted on his first chance when Tsitsipas hit a forehand long to take a one-set lead after 43 minutes.
Neither player faced a break point in the second set with each only being taken to deuce once, Rublev in the fifth game and Tsitsipas in the tenth game as a tiebreaker would decide things.
The Russian grabbed an early minibreak after the Greek missed on another forehand for a 2-0 lead and he never looked back and at 6-2 he sealed the win on his first match point with a forehand volley to cap off a fine performance.