Hungry Andrey Rublev has cashed in on his opponent’s generosity, with a banana from Brit Dan Evans powering the fifth seed into the Australian Open fourth spherical.
Rublev gave up a miserly 9 video games in his straight-sets win, the Russian delivering a ruthless 6-4 6-2 6-3 victory that left world No.30 Evans scratching for solutions.
The 25-year-old will face the winner of the conflict between Danish ninth seed Holger Rune and Frenchman Ugo Humbert for a spot within the quarter-finals.
Mid-match Evans confirmed his class when he gave Rublev considered one of his bananas however he might have regretted such generosity.
“I asked the ball boy for a banana but Danny asked for bananas earlier and he had two so he threw me one,” a smiling Rublev stated.
“He helped me with some energy for sure – I win an extra two games because I eat the banana.”
Balancing contact and finesse with some energy hitting, Rublev hit 60 winners to twenty from Evans within the scientific two-hour, nine-minute efficiency that additionally included 10 aces.
He is trying to eclipse his earlier finest Open run – reaching the quarter-finals in 2021 – whereas he has by no means gone additional than the final eight at any main.
Rublev was glad together with his displaying and felt his confidence was rising with every match.
He got here into the Open in questionable type after shedding each matches he performed within the two Adelaide tournaments, shedding to residence hope Thanasi Kokkinakis and Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut.
“Every match I’m playing better and better and I’m really happy because at the beginning of the season I lost a couple of tough matches against great players,” Rublev stated.
“I lost a bit of confidence and I’m happy that since the first match here I’m playing really good tennis and I’m improving.
“After the primary set I felt confidence and that I can play higher and play sooner and add yet one more pace and as quickly as I did it I began to really feel even higher and I really feel he is not snug.
“I tried to play even more aggressive and at the end played really good tennis.”
