Doubles challenge: what awaits Andreeva and Rublev in the fight to reach the second week of the US Open

Mirra Andreeva confirmed the status of the first racket of Russia. Conchita Martinez's ward had a second—round match with another Russian, Anastasia Potapova, in just 77 minutes. For the first time in her career, a native of Krasnoyarsk managed to win more than one victory in New York, so Mirra updated her personal best at the most unsuccessful Grand Slam tournament for herself and rose to fourth position in the WTA online ranking. Andreeva's next opponent will be the number one in the doubles rankings, American Taylor Townsend. Ekaterina Alexandrova repeated her best result at the US Open, beating Wang Xinyu. (6:2, 6:2). For the second year in a row, Anna Kalinskaya also stepped into the third round. However, it seems that next she will have to play with former world number one Iga Sventek, who is currently on the move. It is worth noting the victory of Andrey Rublev, who is still very lucky with the grid.

That's a good sign.

In the opening match against Alicia Parks, Mirra conceded only one game, but now she has allowed Potapova to win four games. Such an impressive dominance over experienced rivals testifies to Andreeva's serious attitude. In the match against Anastasia, the best tennis player of our country moved perfectly on the court, proving that she has no problems with her injured leg. Potapova also showed great promise at a young age (she won the junior Wimbledon 2016), but her current form does not allow her to compete on equal terms with the fifth racket of the world. Since May of this year, a native of Saratov has been unable to win two matches in a row. I haven't been able to now either. 28 unforced errors against the opponent's 18 is a verdict.

"I'm incredibly glad that I've finally broken the curse of the US Open," Mirra commented on her success in an on—court interview. — It's an amazing feeling. I won a lot of matches at the beginning of the year. It was hard to maintain this attitude and concentration. But I feel like I'm getting back on track. My mood for the matches is the same now as in the tournaments I won. I try to keep it going and play aggressively. If we compare the training sessions last week and today's match, I gained four times. I look better and better with every meeting. That's a good sign.

Mirra reached the third round of the US Open for the first time in her career. Before that, she had been eliminated twice in New York in the second round. This allowed our athlete to take another height in the online ranking. Andreeva virtually beat American Madison Keys, who in the second round sensationally lost in a three-hour marathon to the 82nd racket of the world Renata Sarasua from Mexico. So for the first time, the 18-year-old star from Russia is now ranked fourth in the list of the strongest players in the WTA. However, this success still needs to be confirmed — there are five more rounds ahead at the US Open, during which a lot of ranking points are played. For now, Mirra should better tune in to her next opponent, the assertive lefty Taylor Townsend, who sensationally beat Latvian Elena Ostapenko.

Last year, Mirra beat Taylor in singles in three sets at the "thousandth" in Madrid. The match between Andreeva/Schneider and Townsend/Sinyakova in the semi-finals of the Australian Open ended in favor of the international duo. (6:7, 6:4, 6:3) — The American and the Czech later won the title in Melbourne. In general, Taylor, like any other player, is great at the net, but her tennis is heavily dependent on courage. If her game goes well, it will be very difficult to stop the assertive American. This year, she won singles tournaments against such famous tennis players as Yulia Putintseva, Sofia Kenin, Danielle Collins and Lyudmila Samsonova. So in no case should Andreeva's competitor be underestimated, despite the fact that the two opening matches turned out to be relatively easy for the Russian.

A lucky draw

At the US Open, Rublev needs to defend 200 points, that is, to reach at least the fourth round. A year ago, at this stage, he lost in five sets to Grigor Dimitrov. Andrey has favorable conditions for repeating the result. The Russian started with a match against 20-year-old Croat Dino Przimic, who made it to the main draw through qualifying. Rublev did not experience any special problems in the opening round, but he spoke about the danger of such rivals. According to Andrey, low-ranking opponents play easily and boldly, so their actions are extremely unpredictable.

The grid turned out so that after Przimic, he went out to the winner in the match between lucky loser James Duckworth from Australia and wild card holder Tristan Boyer from the USA. In the second round, Rublev was joined by a 24-year-old American, whom our tennis player had never met before. For Boyer, the second round of a major ATP tournament is the highest achievement of his career. He has never managed to go further either at the Masters or at the Grand Slam tournaments, as well as to defeat tennis players from the top 20 rankings.

In the two opening sets, the difference in class between the rivals was noticeable. Rublev easily took a 2-0 lead, but Boyer perked up at the start of the third set and finally began to find what he was missing most, a serve. And over and over again, I began to understand how to resist an opponent at a reception. It happened gradually. Rublev still held the advantage until the score was 4:4 in the game, but not as strong as in previous sets. The Russian even had a chance to make a break, but the rope played against him at the right moment.

Since Tristan served first in the game, when he took his games, he constantly put Andrey in the position of fighting back. In the end, he felt that he could pull this game off powerfully, and showed an outstanding technique. The American had a forehand at full power, which he fired with winners so that Rublev just had to watch the ball with his eyes.

Boyer's courage was helped by the stands. At the beginning of the match, which was the first start, there were not many spectators, and during the long match, the American public began to wake up and actively support their compatriot.

Rublev could not find himself in this element. Yes, at the beginning of the fourth game he led with a break, but he did not take the game himself, but his opponent allowed him to. Still, it was not easy for the 113th racket of the world to keep the level shown in the third set. Then Tristan began to "bite" the Russian again with an aggressive move. And even though it was not possible to equalize in the second game, although there were break points, it turned out in the fourth.

Andrey was angry. He was particularly stressed by Boyer's forehand strikes. In his favorite stroke, the American outplayed the Russian. Rublev shouted obscenely several times, before reaching the ball, how tired he was of it all.

Andrey's advantage was intercepted, even though he was leading in sets. With great difficulty and a bunch of unprintable words, he stood up to the tie-break. Boyer was already nervous in it. Starting the segment with a ridiculous shot into the net, he began to make a lot of mistakes, which he had almost not had in the last two sets. After reaching the matchball, Rublev closed the match with an ace.

The first opponent from among the "seeded" could potentially get caught by Andrey in the third round. However, the 23rd racket of the world Hugo Humber in his first match failed to cope with Australian Adam Walton, who in turn lost to qualifier Coleman Wong. It is with the representative of Hong Kong that the Russian will compete for entry into the fourth round.