Russian Andrey Rublev has won the THIEM 7 exhibition event beating Austria’s Dominic Thiem in the final.
Andrey Rublev beats Dominic Thiem in the final of the THIEM 7 event
Rublev defeated the Austrian Thiem in the final 6-2, 5-7, 10-8 on Saturday night.
After splitting the first two sets, Rublev went up 4-2 in the deciding tie-break, then moved to a 9-6 lead and won on his third match point to in 10-8 and claim the title. The Russian thanked Thiem on social media after the win, saying, “Thank you so much @ThiemDomi for inviting me to compete at your event #Thiems7 it was an amazing week and a great feeling to play again.”
Rublev said he was also happy with his performance this week. “It was a great week. I really enjoyed being here.” He received the winner’s check for 100,000 euros. In the semi-finals, Thiem defeated Spain’s Roberta Bautista Agut 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-2 and Rublev defeated Italian Matteo Berrettini 6-4, 7-6(6).
Others who had taken part in the event included Russian Karen Khachanov, German Jan-Lennard Struff, Norwegian Casper Ruud, and Austrian Dennis Novak. The event was held on clay courts and in front of a limited audience – with the maximum capacity being 500 fans while maintaining social distancing guidelines.
Thiem said he was happy with the tournament although he did not end up winning the title. “It was a huge deal for us players in front of such an enthusiastic audience play. The atmosphere was really cool and I want to thank everyone who came.
In these difficult times, this is anything but a matter of course. All players are super happy. Of course, Kitzbühel also contributed a lot because it is simply beautiful here. And then security was also taken care of which is, of course, very important for the players at the moment.
It all worked out perfectly and I believe that the tournament went perfectly”. Andrey Rublev is currently ranked a career-best No. 14 in the world rankings. He has won 4 ATP singles titles in his career so far. He is also a former French Open junior singles winner.
Dominic Thiem is ranked No. 3 in the world and has won 16 ATP singles titles, including the 2019 BNP Paribas Open, and reached three Grand Slam finals.
