World number eight, Andrey Rublev won his second ATP Masters 1000 title with a remarkable comeback win over Felix Auger-Aliassime in the Madrid final.
The 26-year-old, seventh seed rallied from a set down to secure a 4-6, 7-5, 7-5 victory in just under three hours against his rejuvenated Canadian opponent who was in his first Masters 1000 final.
Rublev arrived in the Spanish capital off the back of a four-match losing streak. Since his win over Andy Murray in Indian Wells, he lost in the first round at Miami, Monte Carlo, and Barcelona to cap a miserable run of not winning a single set.
However, the Russian looked like a different player since he stepped foot on the dirt of Madrid-blistering past his opponents without dropping a set before needing a decider to oust the defending champion and second seed, Carlos Alcaraz. the biggest win of his season after two hours and 47 minutes.
After losing his serve in the first game of the match, Rublev tried to fight back but it wasn’t enough to snatch the first set from Aliassime. He played with more intensity in the second set and grabbed a crucial break in the 12th game of the final two sets to win the 16th tour-level title of his career and definitely his biggest win of the season following his victory in Hong Kong.
“I have no words. If you knew what I had been through in the past nine days you would not imagine that I would be able to win a title,” Rublev said. “I’m incredibly happy. That one week changed everything because now it looks like I was not losing the last weeks in the first round!”
“I would say this is the proudest title of my career,” Rublev said. “I was almost dead every day. I was not sleeping at night. The last three, four days I didn’t sleep.”