MONTE-CARLO, April 15 (Xinhua) -- Russia's Andrey Rublev set the final against Holger Rune of Denmark at the ATP Monte-Carlo Masters, the first clay-court Masters event of the season, as both players advanced with comeback wins in the semifinals on Saturday.
Fifth seed Rublev rallied to a 5-7, 6-1, 6-3 victory over Taylor Fritz of the United States to reach the final here for a second time.
Despite losing the opening set, Rublev kept his cool and dominated the second set before bad weather forced the players to leave the court for nearly two hours with Rublev leading 3-2 in the decider.
The Russian broke Fritz's serve in the first game after the restart to lay the foundation for his win.
"It was really tough, especially against Taylor," Rublev, 25, said. "I lost past three times (against him) I think, (including) in Indian Wells in the semifinals. It was tough mentally to play against him because I was thinking if I would have a chance."
"I started really well and then I was up a break and then he broke me back, but I knew I would have chances. In the end we had a great match and I am pleased with the win."
Rublev, a five-time ATP 500 events champion, is still chasing his maiden Masters trophy. The other finalist Rune, 19, however, is only one win away from his second title in the ATP 1000 level after seeing off Jannik Sinner of Italy 1-6, 7-5, 7-5 in a late-night thriller.
In a battle between two of the brightest talents of men's tennis, it was the Dane who handled the conditions and pressure the best in a rain-disrupted clash on the clay court.
"It was quite unbelievable," Rune said. "Jannik started firing, hitting a lot of winners and he has been in good form the past few months. I had to dig deep and find solutions, which I did well. It was fun to play like this."
After Sinner swept the first set, both hammered the ball with unrelenting force following the 47-minute rain delay which came when Rune led 3-0 in the second set. The resilient Sinner recovered from 5-2 to win three games in a row to level at 5-5, saving two set points on serve at 5-4. However, Rune stayed calm and capitalized on Sinner errors to reel off eight of the last 10 points of the set to take level.
In a breathtaking decider, Rune used the drop shots effectively to pull Sinner around and secured a decisive break in the 12th game of the set, meanwhile securing a place in Sunday's showdown. ■
