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MADRID:
Andrey Rublev reached his first Madrid Open final with a 6-4 6-3 win over American Taylor Fritz on Friday, as the Russian seventh seed continued his return to form at the claycourt tournament.
Rublev, the highest seed left in the tournament at the semi-final stage, survived an early wobble to see off the 12th seed, and was all smiles after his straight-sets win, and will now be favourite to claim his second title of the year.
Fritz broke serve in the opening game, with the Russian showing early signs of frustration, but Rublev composed himself to break back immediately and ended the set winning two games to love to take the opener.
The second set went with serve until Rublev broke to lead 4-2 and it ended in a similar vein to the first, this time the Russian winning his final two service games to love, closing the gap in their head-to-head record, with four wins and five losses.
Rublev came into the tournament on a four-match losing streak, but has eased into the final, knocking out second seed Carlos Alcaraz on the way, and will face either unseeded Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime or Czech 30th seed Jiri Lehecka for the title.
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