Haase narrowly defeated in Monte Carlo

Robin Haase (ATP-44) was narrowly defeated by Andrey Rublev (ATP-33) in the first round of the Masters 1000 tournament in Monte Carlo. After two and a half hours the scoreboard read 7-6(7), 2-6, 7-5  in favour of the 20-year-old Russian player.

The opening set lasted no less than 72 minutes. Haase missed four set points. The 31-year-old player from The Hague could not use the 6-4 advantage in the tiebreak. Rublev, however, immediately struck at the first set point after the longest rally of the set.

Haase was visibly dissatisfied, but managed to turn the button in the second game. The Dutch number one raced to a 5-1 advantage and served the set out in half an hour: 6-2.

In the deciding set both players raced through their own service games. At a 5-6 disadvantage Haase seemed to be able to aim for a tiebreak after he easily took a 30-00 advantage. But Rublev came back and get it to deuce five times. At the third match point the player from Moscow won the match because Haase had a double fault.

Rublev will play against Dominic Thiem (ATP-7) in the second round. The Austrian is fifth seed in the principality and received a bye in the first round.