Nordea Open: Rublev books spot in semi-finals, takes Zverev apart in straight sets

Russian Andrey Rublev, the second seed, won against German Alexander Zverev, the No 5 seed, 6-2, 6-3 to move into the last four of the Nordea Open at the Båstads tennisstadion in Bastad on Friday.

Rublev is starting to close the head-to-head gap on one of his best friends on the tour. Zverev won their first five tour-level meetings, extending back to 2016, but Rublev has now won the last two, both this year, without dropping a set.

Wasting no time ⏰@AndreyRublev97 reaches the last 4 for the second year running in Bastad, defeating Zverev 6-2 6-3.#NordeaOpen pic.twitter.com/HXsIQzffIs

— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) July 21, 2023

Rublev, ranked No 7, will play the winner of the match between Federico Coria and No 4 seed Francisco Cerundolo next.

The Russian defeated qualifier Pavel Kotov (6-3, 7-6 (4)) in the previous round of the Swedish Open.

In the previous rounds of the Bastad tournament, Zverev, ranked No 19, edged out Slovak Alex Molcan (6-4, 3-6, 7-5) and beat Brazilian Thiago Monteiro (6-1, 6-0).

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Bastad ATP250, other last eight results (Båstads tennisstadion, clay, EUR 562.815, most recent results first):

• Federico Coria vs. Francisco Cerundolo
• Casper Ruud (1) beat Sebastian Ofner: 6-3, 6-4
• Lorenzo Musetti (3) beat Filip Misolic (Q): 4-6, 6-1, 6-2