Rublev beats Arnaldi in rain-hit match to reach Montreal final

MONTREAL:  World No. 8 Andre Rublev dismissed Italian Matteo Arnaldi 6-4, 6-2 in a rain-hit match to charge into the ATP Masters 1000 final in Montreal.

After a one hour, 40-minute suspension in play at 6-4, 1-1 Sunday night, Rublev returned to court crushing winners at will, to win five of the final six games of the match to advance to his sixth ATP Masters 1000 final, a day after upsetting World No. 1 Jannik Sinner in the quarterfinals.

The former World No. 5 has had a rollercoaster run at the Masters 1000 level this season. He claimed just one match win across Indian Wells, Miami and Monte-Carlo before charging to the Madrid title, but then lost his second match in Rome.

"The wait has been worth it. I'm happy to be in my first Canadian final. I just want to recover, rest well and be ready for tomorrow. The idea (of not going to the Olympics) was to be more ready for Canada, so if I'm in the final, it means we did really well," Rublev was quoted by ATP.

Rublev will play Alexei Popyrin in the final. The Australian turned a near disaster into an unexpected triumph to snap Sebastian Korda's eight-match winning streak and charge into his first ATP Masters 1000 final.

Popyrin had defeated Rubleb in the first round of Monte-Carlo at the beginning of the clay season.

Rublev, who is looking to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals for the fifth consecutive year, has already climbed four places to seventh in the PIF ATP Race to Turin and would move past Novak Djokovic into the sixth spot should he win the title.