Rublev battles back to beat Marozsan in Umag QFs

Andrey Rublev is through to his first semi-final since he won the Madrid title in May after a comeback win against Fabian Marozsan Thursday at the Plava Laguna Croatia Open Umag. The top seed earned a 5-7, 6-3, 6-2 victory to set up a Friday showdown with fourth seed Francisco Cerundolo in what will be his 40th tour-level semi-final.

"I feel great," Rublev said of his accomplishment. "I was looking forward to that match because it was a great challenge for me. After the first set I was thinking that maybe today's not my day. But then somehow I changed my mentality and I started to say, 'No, just keep fighting and we'll see what's going to happen.' In the end I was able to play better and better to end up winning."

Rublev is seeking to win multiple titles at the same event for the first time in his career, with all 16 of his tour-level trophies having come in different locations. He is also bidding for his third title of 2024 after triumphs in Hong Kong and Madrid.

Rublev races to the semi-finals 🏎️🌟👏

The win goes to @AndreyRublev97 over Marozsan 5-7 6-3 6-2@CroatiaOpenUmag | #CroatiaOpenUmag pic.twitter.com/zjVavmUPUg

— ATP Tour (@atptour) July 25, 2024

By reaching the semis, Rublev moved past Casper Ruud to No. 8 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings. He can climb to within 70 points of World No. 7 Hubert Hurkacz by winning the title.

Cerundolo advanced to his 10th tour-level semi-final with a 6-2, 2-6, 7-6(2) result against Lorenzo Sonego. Neither player created a break chance in the final set, according to Infosys ATP Stats, but the fourth seed dominated the decisive tie-break.

As the first Argentine semi-finalist in Umag since Guido Pella and Marco Trungelliti in 2018, Cerundolo has equalled his best result of this season — a semi-final showing in Rio de Janeiro. Cerundolo and Rublev have split two previous Lexus ATP Head2Head meetings, with Rublev winning a dramatic three-setter last year in the Bastad semis.

#NextGenATP Czech Jakub Mensik also progressed to the semis on Thursday with a 6-0, 6-4 win against lucky loser Tseng Chun-Hsin. The fifth semi-finalist aged 18 or younger in Umag history — and the first Czech to reach that stage since Jiri Novak in 2005 — Mensik awaits second seed Lorenzo Musetti in the last four.

Musetti dominated down the stretch of a 5-7, 6-3, 6-0 victory against Dusan Lajovic to close Thursday's play in Umag. The 22-year-old Italian is through to his fourth consecutive semi-final after reaching that stage in three straight grass-court events at Stuttgart, Queen's Club and Wimbledon.

Lajovic made 84 per cent (75/89) of his first serves in the two-hour, 16-minute match, but Musetti still converted six times on 17 break chances.