Eastern motivations: how Andreeva and Rublev won in Dubai and Doha

Russian tennis player Mirra Andreeva defeated Denmark's Klara Towson in the final of the WTA 1000 tournament in Dubai. This is the first such success of our 17-year-old star. She became the youngest winner in the history of the "1000" and, in addition, on Monday will become the ninth racket of the world. At the same time in Doha at the ATP 500 tournament Andrey Rublev celebrated success. In Qatar, the Russian defeated three top opponents in a row and did what our tennis leader Daniil Medvedev has yet to do. Andrey won his 17th title and for the first time in his career was able to win the final at the same tournament.

In the moment.

Andreeva was considered the favorite of the meeting, but the beginning remained for Towson. The Dane made a break in the first game and soon led 2-0. Andreeva gathered herself and started to pressure her opponent's weak point - the serve. The Russian won the next two games with spectacular backhands. Afterwards, the girls exchanged breaks - Towson caught Mirra on mistakes, the Russian used the Dane's constant wrong choice of position.

Everything changed at the end of the set: after each serve, Clara started stroking her leg, clearly feeling discomfort. The reception became even worse, so in the tie-break Mirra dismantled her opponent without a chance - 7:1 and took the first game.

Shortly before the final, Towson talked about not feeling at her best after a tough semifinal with Karolina Mukhova, which lasted three hours. Since Towson was really not in the best shape, Andreeva only had to finish off her opponent. That she did - in the second game Clara resisted for only one game, and from the third game onwards she only lost. The set ended with a confident success of the Russian 6:1 and a natural victory in the final.

The triumph at the Dubai 1000 is a real breakthrough in Andreeva's career. Firstly, she became the youngest participant and winner of the finals of WTA 1000 tournaments. Secondly, for Mirra it is basically the first title at this level of competition in her career. Moreover, on her way to the trophy in the UAE, the Russian defeated three major champions at once: Markéta Vondroušová, Iga Sventek and Elena Rybakina.

In addition, thanks to her success in Dubai, Andreeva soared up the rankings. Now she is without any options the first racket of Russia. Also on Monday Mirra will become ninth in the WTA rankings, moreover - the youngest member of the top 10 since 2007! Both positions are debuts for the young tennis player.

- The result speaks for itself," Olympic champion and two-time Grand Slam winner Yevgeny Kafelnikov told Izvestia. - We are all sincerely happy about Mirra's success at such a young age. What could be in the future? There is no point in guessing. She wins, gives pleasure to the fans - that's the most important thing. And what will happen next - we don't need to think about it. It is not worth labeling now. You can expect one thing and get another. No expectations are needed now, we need to live in the moment and enjoy the results of our tennis player.

First in ten

In the first two matches in Doha against Alexander Bublik and Nuno Borges, Andrey Rublev didn't spend much energy, but in the third match he was full of emotion and struggle. On a tie-break in the deciding set and only from the eighth matchball of the match he was able to achieve victory over Alex de Minaur, the tournament's number two seed. In the semifinals he had to play Felix Auger-Aliassime, who had only played one and a half matches in Qatar before this stage.

After a difficult victory over qualifier Kanten Alis, the Canadian's opponents began to withdraw. In the 1/8 finals it was Hamad Medjedovic, who had earlier defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas, and in the quarterfinals the match was finished early by Daniil Medvedev. The Russian, who lost 6-3 in the first set, attributed it to food poisoning.

So Felix was more rested, but it did not help him to improve the statistics of personal meetings with Rublev. Andrey won the sixth match against the Canadian out of seven. The fate of the meeting was decided on the tie-break of the third set. Rublev made an early mini-break, and this tiny advantage at the start was enough for the final victory. The Russian lost nothing on his own serve, although he didn't take any more on the other's.

In the final we had to play against Britain's Jack Draper, who defeated Matteo Berrettini (who had knocked out Novak Djokovic himself) and Jiri Legečka (the Czech tennis player was perhaps the main sensation of the tournament when he defeated the first seed Carlos Alcaraz in three sets).

Both players took their serves in the starting 11 games of the deciding match with great confidence. Neither of the hosts won even two games, let alone break points. However, the Briton frankly failed in the 12th game. Losing 0:15, he made an unforced error and then a double fault. The first in the match. So Andrey got three set points on serve and won the opening game.

The second set was decided in a similar situation. With the score at 5:5 and 15:30, Andrei broke a shot and couldn't win back two break points. Draper took the lead and served for the set very confidently.

It seemed that there was a break in the game, but, in fact, there was no fight in the deciding game. Andrey went for a short toilet break and immediately took his serve to zero. In the second game it came down to even, and Draper immediately made a mistake with a shot into the net. After getting a break point, the Russian decided to take a risk, and he hit a great backhand.

The fast break played into Andrei's hands. He easily took his serve and clinched again. At 0:30 Draper snapped a shot and was finally down. When Rublev took the fifth game in a row, it became obvious that Jack would not be able to turn the tide of the game. He still broke the score in the sixth game and prevented Andrey from making a "banana". However, at 5-1, the Russian served for the match in exemplary fashion: two winners and two aces.

- Andrey is a good man overall - a good tournament and a good win," emphasized Andrey Olkhovsky, winner of two Grand Slam mixed events. - In my opinion, he recovered psychologically. There were a lot of matches where he didn't realize match points right away. That is, there were such swings. But in the Doha final, in my opinion, he turned the tide of the match. It was the second game of the third set when Rublev broke Draper, made the score 2-0 and then he was better in everything. Congratulations, Andrey - well done. This is the first title in ten months, it's worth a lot. He did well, showed solid tennis and psychological confidence.

Rublev took the title for the first time since May 2024 (he won his 17th final out of 27) and moved up one place in the ATP rankings, surpassing Tommy Paul.