Australian Alex De Minaur, the tournament's fifth seed, defeated Andrey Rublev in the China Open quarterfinal in Beijing 1:6, 6:2, 6:3. The match was played on hard courts at the ATP 500 event with a prize fund of 4.1 million dollars. The win sends De Minaur into the semifinal.
The set the Australian gave away, and the two he took back
The first set went to Rublev, 6:1. In the second and third sets De Minaur came out on top, 6:2 and 6:3. It was the second consecutive match at the tournament in which the Australian lost the opening set yet still won. In the round of 16 against Quentin Halys he dropped the first set 3:6 before winning 7:6 and 7:5.
All of Rublev's wins in Beijing had also gone to three sets. In the round of 32 he beat Tallon Griekspoor 6:4, 5:7, 7:6, and in the round of 16 he defeated Roman Safiullin 6:2, 3:6, 6:4. The quarterfinal against De Minaur was his third match at the tournament to reach a deciding set.
De Minaur's run began with a win over Mariano Navone, 7:6, 6:2. Halys and Rublev followed. The Australian currently sits 10th in the rankings with 3100 points, while Rublev is 20th with 2165 points (according to rank.tennis).
According to api.tennis, their previous meetings include a win for De Minaur at the 2024 Australian Open (6:4, 6:7, 6:7, 6:3, 6:0) and in Doha in 2025 (6:1, 3:6, 7:6). Rublev won two matches in Rotterdam, in 2023 by a score of 6:4, 6:4 and in 2024 by 7:6, 4:6, 6:3.