Defending champion Andrei Rublev crashed out in the third round of the "Masters" 1000 clay-court tournament in Madrid.
The seventh-seeded Russian lost 4-6, 6-0, 4-6 to Kazakhstan's Alexander Bublik in just one hour and 24 minutes. The defeat at such an early stage will have serious consequences for Rublev, who will leave the top 15 of the world rankings. Since September 2022, he has been consistently in the world's top 10.
But Rublev didn't have many chances in today's match. Bublik made 33 winners and hit 12 aces. In the decisive third set, the Kazakh made a breakthrough in the first game, after which he lost a total of only four points on his serve until the end of the match.
For a place in the quarterfinals, Bublik will compete with the winner of the match between American Ben Shelton and Czech Jakub Menšík.
In another match that has ended so far, American Brendon Nakashima won 7:5, 6:3 over Italian Fabio Cobolli. In the next round, Nakashima will play one of Russian Daniil Medvedev and Argentine Juan Manuel Cerundolo.