TEEN MACHINE
Rublev leads charge of next generation to set a date with Nadal
Rafael Nadal had better make the most of his Grand Slam winning chances while he can, as he will soon be reminded in the quarterfinal of the US Open.
The 31-year-old Spaniard rediscovered his best form to make the last eight, where he will face 19-year-old andrey Rublev, the latest of the aTP’s coming generation to suggest that something is stirring beneath the established stars.
Rublev has not been the most talked-about of the young tyros, but last night he stunned No 9 seed David Goffin 7-5, 7-6, 6-3 to become the youngest quarterfinalist at flushing Meadows since andy Roddick 16 years ago.
Denis Shapovalov, the 18-yearold Canadian, had garnered most of the attention, but it is the wiry Muscovite Rublev who has gone furthest in a draw slightly depleted of big names.
The son of a former top amateur boxer, it was less than eight months ago that Rublev only managed to get five games off andy Murray in the australian Open second round. like Shapovalov, his improvement has been stark since the early season, and as recently as april he was beaten at an event in Morocco by Northampton’s alex Ward.
Nadal has been looking slightly out of sorts but he brought the hammer down last night on alex Dolgopolov, needing only an hour and 41 minutes to go through 6-2, 6-4, 6-1. The Ukrainian’s exit meant that the US Open had lost two of its more controversial figures within 24 hours, Maria Sharapova having been dismissed the previous day.
The issue that has enveloped Dolgopolov is entirely different. He is currently being probed by the Tennis Integrity Unit over suspicious betting patterns in a match he lost two weeks ago at the aTP event in North Carolina.
His vehement denials have made his press conferences compulsory viewing here.
The topic of match-fixing and how to combat it is sure to raise its head before the end of the year, as the independent inquiry commissioned by the authorities is due to report back in the next couple of months, having been assembled following allegations at the 2016 australian Open.
according to well- placed sources, the total cost is expected to be eyewatering, somewhere not far short of £10million.
Nadal looked more settled than in previous rounds and remarked afterwards that, perhaps surprisingly, he finds hard courts gentler on his knees these days than he does the grass due to the method of changing direction.
The Spaniard is top seed and yesterday his female counterpart Karolina Pliskova thrashed american Jennifer Brady 6-1, 6-0 in 46 minutes to make the last eight.