He left Andrey Rublev to the Godó center court, the Rafa Nadal court, visibly pissed off. With his hands in his pockets, without a racket, and indifferent to the draw and the rival. He was not satisfied with his racket, which he played, measured the tension of the string and even pulled (in the second set) after several gestures of doing so. An attitude that would not be the best to face a meeting of a demanding competition like Godó, but that did not deprive him of taking the duel.
He started the game with both players absolutely dominating with their serves, without either of them even having a break point. Rublev combined winning shots typical of an elite tennis player like him with some more misguided (after which there were always fuss) while Federico Gaio (138º) was more solid: he abused the left-overs (he paid for it) but in general he played good tennis. The problem for the Italian was that the only option he gave to Rublev was in the last game and the Russian did not miss it: 6-4.
The second set followed with Rublev quite angry and more so when he lost his serve. It was not a serious problem, he always answered with another break, but he kept Gaio in the game. Until the Russian wanted. As in the first set, Rublev squeezed in the final stretch, broke the key game (5-3 with serve in favor) and ended the match.
In the round of 16 the Spanish Albert Ramos will be measured, who defeated the French Mannarino in two sets, something almost unprecedented for the Spanish tennis player in this 2021 in which he had become used to playing three-set matches.
Tsitsipas sweeps Munar in his debut
Stefanos Tsitsipas also debuted with victory, who showed that he still maintains his great form, allowing him to lift the champion title in Monte Carlo. after surpassing the spanish Jaume Munar by a resounding 6-0 and 6-2. The Greek was a true steamroller in the first set, easily conserving his serve and breaking Munar's serve up to three times to endorse him with a donut and put land in between (6-0).
In the second Munar was more solid and even got to put Tsitsipas in trouble with his serve but without achieving the break. However, in the sixth game Tsitsipas managed to break Munar's serve, which caused the Manacorí to lower his arms and allowed the Greek to take the set and the match 6-2. The Hellenic will now face Australian Alex de Miñaur in the round of 16, who beat Kazakh Alexander Bublik 7-6 (3) 6-2 in two sets.