Rublev Pushes Past Comesana to Book Quarterfinal Spot

Russian Andrey Rublev and Argentine Francisco Comesana faced off against each other tonight in the Round of 16 in the ATP Cincinnati Masters 1000 Tournament, one of the many eagerly followed competitions on the US Open circuit leading up to the major, historic Grand Slam in New York. The tournament recently reverted to this name, its original name, after being known as the Western and Southern Open since 2002. A brief tussle in the first game helps the two to feel out each other’s game, with Comesana putting the first game on the board. Yet, Rublev holds it even at 1-1. Comesana double-faults to 15-30. A big serve forces a backhand fail, bringing about a deuce. Rublev is still reeling from a brief crowd disturbance he addressed. A short rally finds Comesana sending a deep backhand, facing him another break point chance down. Constantly playing this game on his second serve grants him no favors, and Rublev is finally able to break him, putting away a short forehand set up by an earlier aggressive return, sending the score to 2-1.

Rublev is playing a sloppy game despite the chance for a hold and at deuce. He is also finding little groove in his first serves this early on in the match, like his opponent, but he survives through it. After evening the score to deuce once more, he focuses on getting his next two serves in to start the point: one that puts him up in the rally to set up a hold point, and the other seals the deal for him with a lucky half-volley shot. 3-1. Fifteen-30 and a second serve. Comesana is finding it difficult to stand his ground against Rublev’s shots in rallies, being forced into errors of weakness, and unable to turn the momentum of the points in his favor. Scraping the baseline, stuck on defensive shots, he can only dump a weak slice into the net after a barrage of Rublev’s heavy forehands into his backhand leaves him exhausted. 

Double fault to break, Rublev eases into a 4-1 lead. Rublev seems to have found his footing here and has quickly ascended to 40-15, his power now balanced out with his errors. Nice setup, guy on defense and off the court, only to dump it into the net. An easy and costly miss. Makes up for it with the very next point, refusing

A 129 mph ace opens the game, his 4th in the match. He decided to reward himself with that free point by immediately negating it with a double fault, 15-15. Missing his first serve once more, Comesana fished for variety and a solution, drop-shotting Rublev. Yet, his opponent is too quick and punishes him for it. Comesana refuses to be daunted and pulls another ace from his arsenal to make it 30-30. Still digging deep, he finds a first serve, which Rublev is unable to attack or hurt him with, allowing Comesana to descend upon the ball furiously with a forehand winner, giving him a break point. 

Rublev, clearly angered by Comesana’s sudden resolve to fight back, returns to serve 5-2 with a vengeance. The first point is only a three-ball rally, with Rublev dominating and Comesana futilely chasing; still, the ball never meets his racquet. Rublev goes up 15-0. He finds a 114 mph ace to inch up 30-0; Comesana is unable to do anything. Rublev seemingly decides to enjoy this manner of free points and aces twice more, his opponent never touching the ball for the remainder of the set. Three consecutive, impressive aces and a 6-2, first-set win. 

Comesan aces at 30-30, then again when he sees a slim chance at holding at 40-40. Opening the 2nd set with a convincing hold and a 1-0 lead. On his serve, Rublev looks to be in one of his famous serious moods now, and it shows clearly in his game, to his benefit. He opens with yet another ace in his first service game of the second set. At 30-30 ‘shank,’ giving Comesana a break point, a clear oddity, but a noticeable cause and effect from Comesana finally changing his pace to deep, high-arching balls, giving Rublev no chance to punish them and drag him as he’s been. Second serve, the energy is nervous. A slower rally than the match’s tempo, but it comes out in Comesana’s favor, and he is shockingly up 2-0.

Despite the careful, thoughtful tennis that got him to his 2-0 lead, the young Argentine service came and was both unlucky and unlike the previous one. Comesana does not capitalize on his new revelations. Rublev breaks him at love; despite hardly being the aggressor in the game, his fire was out after being broken. 2-1. Seeing him falter, Rublev roars back to life again, and his service game goes by in a whirl as he poetically holds his serve at love, just as he broke at love.

Comesana is frustrated that his varied methods are not working, but he continues to fight—his opponent, his errors, and his constantly failing serves. Points are played on his second serve, putting him in a weak position and lifting Rublev just where he loves to be: in a punishing position. Comesana double-faults at 30-30, putting him in a treacherous position to be broken, but the pressure gets to him, and he does a double-fault combo to break himself. Rublev is now up 3-2, a set and a break.

Rublev holds at 40-30. Even being up 4-2, with seemingly little that his opponent can do so far to figure out a solution, Rublev still seems to have an issue with a particular section of the crowd of teenagers, and just like it did the first time before in the first set, it breaks his concentration badly. Comesana can hold with relative ease at 40-0, even while the majority of the game was played on his second serve, which should have put him in a weaker position, just as it had been throughout the match. Yet, Rublev, frustrated and frayed by distraction, saw that he made some very simple and very uncharacteristic errors to his opponent’s benefit. A quick sip, sit, and towel wipe might have been all that was needed to reboot Rublev’s patience, as he returned to serve with pinpoint focus and all the bad intentions in the world. Doing devilish things at the net, making powerful, heavy groundstrokes when he’s holding his ground at the baseline, and of course, making his first serve, it is no wonder that he raced to 40-15 in no time. He artfully closed out the game with a wide ace, leaving Comesana to serve to stay in the match.

Comesana still, at this late stage in the match, has not troubleshooted what is malfunctioning with any ATP player’s most prized weapon: his first serve. He tries as he can from the second serve, but Rublev is everywhere—the corners, the baseline, and the net. A devastating blur of red hair and K-Swiss green. With that tenacity and still no answers from Comesana, the imminent break occurs without delay.

When it seems like the 11th hour, 15-40, double match point for Rublev, he pulls out a massive inside-out ace from the ad court to save himself. At 30-40, he scrambles a rally, bringing Rublev to the net, inviting Rublev to blaze a forehand passing shot, but it just goes long. Rublev blasts a short, crosscourt forehand winner to end it—and as is tradition for these two, off Comesana’s second serve. Rublev reigned supreme in the end with an overall score of 6-2, 6-3, and with a match time of 1 hour and 20 minutes. Rublev has to face Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz in the next round, the quarterfinals. Alcaraz is the second seed, ATP World Number 2, and the 2025 Men’s French Open Champion. Rublev is currently the ninth seed in the tournament.