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Tsitsipas defeats Rublev to conquer Abu Dhabi exhibition

Tsitsipas defeats Rublev to conquer Abu Dhabi exhibition

Rosy Mina

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Stefanos Tsitsipas and Andrey Rublev at the Mubadala World Tennis Championship. Photo courtesy of MWTC
Stefanos Tsitsipas and Andrey Rublev at the Mubadala World Tennis Championship. Photo courtesy of MWTC

ABU DHABI — World No. 4 Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece ruled the 14th Mubadala World Tennis Championship (MWTC) in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates with a 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 win over World No. 8 Andrey Rublev of Russia on Monday.

“We players come here in search of preparation for the next season,” said Tsitsipas during the trophy presentation. “Andrey is a great competitor, and we had a great match.”

Rublev, the defending champion, also highlighted the importance of MWTC to their preseason: “What we are looking for here is to play these matches at a great level ahead of the new season against some good players, and that’s what we had.”

Tsitsipas, the 2019 MWTC runner-up to current World No. 2 and 22-time grand slam champion Rafael Nadal of Spain, went on to talk about the unifying purpose of tennis.

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“What we as players are trying to do is unite people, bring them together through tennis. And we’ve been doing that successfully over the years,” said the Greek.

Their MWTC final, held on Sunday at the International Tennis Centre of Zayed Sports City, began with Tsitsipas zooming to a 5-1 lead.

He successfully served for the opening set, 6-2, with an ace out wide at 40-30.

At 4-4 in the following set, Rublev held serve to love with an ace and broke to force a deciding set, 6-4, with a backhand down-the-line shot that forced Tsitsipas to net a forehand volley.

In the third set, Tsitsipas quickly regrouped to be at 4-0 via a love service hold.

Rublev also held serve to love in the seventh game to stay in the match at 2-5.

Tsitsipas wrapped things up at 40-0 by forcing a netted forehand from his Russian opponent to be declared the MWTC winner, 6-2.

Before the final, World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz of Spain and World No. 3 Casper Ruud of Norway faced off for third place.

Ruud emerged victorious, 6-1, 6-4 as 2022 US Open champion Alcaraz settled for fourth place.

World No. 14 Cameron Norrie of Great Britain was the fifth placer and World No. 26 Borna Coric of Croatia finished sixth.

The 14th MWTC, held from December 16 to 18, also had a women’s match on Friday featuring World No. 2 Ons Jabeur of Tunisia and 2021 US Open champion and World No. 76 Emma Raducanu of Great Britain.

Jabeur made history as the first woman to win back-to-back MWTC crowns after edging out Raducanu, 5-7, 6-3, 10-8.

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