The Demon takes his revenge on Rublo in Rotterdam

Just last week Andrey “Rublo” Rublev made history at UTS Oslo, raising the iconic Zeus trophy to become the first two-time UTS champion in history. He did it at the expense Alex “The Demon” De Minaur in thrilling fashion, edging the valiant Aussie 14-16, 17-10, 16-13, 20-12 to take the title.

A week later it was The Demon’s turn to take his revenge.

De Minaur notched his eighth career Top-5 win over Rublev on Friday in Rotterdam, handing the Russian a 7-6(5) 4-6 6-3 defeat at the ABN Amro Open to reach the semi-finals.

With the win, which took two hours and 32 minutes to achieve, De Minaur improves to 4-1 against the Top-10 in 2024 and sets a clash with another UTS fixture: Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov.

“If I want to be effective against Andrey, I’ve got to back myself, I’ve got to try to be aggressive and hit the ball flatter and bigger than I normally do. In big moments, I played great, and it got me the win today,” De Minaur said of his victory.

We’ll be seeing more of Rublo and the Demon this year, both on the ATP Tour and at UTS.

Rublo is currently in first place in the race to qualify for the UTS Grand Final later this year – with de Minaur currently in second place in the Race Ranking by 15 points. The UTS Grand Final will be the fourth event this year, two other ones being due to happen in the USA in August and in Europe in October.