Rublev hits shot of the year candidate, defeats Bublik for maiden Wimbledon quarter-final

After defeating the man who took him out two weeks ago in the Halle final, Andrey Rublev is a Wimbledon quarter-finalist for the first time. The No 7-seeded Russian held his ground and finished off Kazakhstan’s Alexander Bublik in five sets, 7-5, 6-3, 6-7 (6), 6-7 (5), 6-4 to move into the last eight at the All England Club in London on Sunday.

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Rublev has now completed the set of Grand Slam quarter-finals – he will bid to reach his maiden major semi-final against either Novak Djokovic or Hubert Hurkacz next.

The 25-year-old Moscow native bolted out to a two sets to love lead against the 23rd seed, but Bublik, bidding to become the first man from Kazakhstan to reach a Grand Slam quarter-final, hit back in sets three and four. The 26-year-old saved a pair of match points while serving at 4-5 in the fourth and proceeded to claim the tiebreaker to force a fifth and deciding set.

“My most lucky shot ever”

Rublev kept his wits about him and engineered the critical break in the seventh game of the final set. He didn’t face a break point and brushed off a challenge from Bublik in the final game, when he made one of the most incredible shots of the tournament, a diving squash shot from well behind the baseline that went for a clean winner against a stunned Bublik.

“Probably it was the most lucky shot ever,” Rublev told the Centre Court crowd after the match. “It was luck, nothing else – I don’t think that I can do it one more time.”

Just stay the course

Rublev, who improves to 8-1 in 2023 on grass and 19-7 lifetime, says remaining calm after dropping the third and fourth sets was key to his victory.

“I don’t know, I was just thinking ‘Ok, it doesn’t matter that I lost the third set and the fourth set,'” he said. “Each set I had chances to win, or he played good, or maybe I was a bit tight and I didn’t play well, so I said for sure if I keep playing I will have at least one chance. At the end I had this chance an I returned so good – I played a really good rally and I was able to break him.”

Bublik fired 39 aces in defeat, and drops to 1-4 lifetime against Rublev. The pair combined for 119 winners on the day, with Bublik striking 67 against 52 unforced errors, while Bublik hit 52 winners against just 21 unforced errors.

Ahead of his victory, the Russian beat Australian Max Purcell (6-3, 7-5, 6-4), Aslan Karatsev (6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-4, 7-5) and Belgian wildcard David Goffin (6-3, 6-7 (6), 7-6 (5), 6-2).

Bublik, ranked No 26, won against American Mackenzie McDonald (6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-4, 6-4), American J.J. Wolf (6-3, 7-6 (5), 6-0) and German Maximilian Marterer (6-4, 6-1, 7-6 (4)) earlier in the tournament.

London (Grand Slam), other last 16 results (All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, grass, GBP 16.077.000, most recent results first):

• Grigor Dimitrov vs. Holger Rune
• Carlos Alcaraz vs. Matteo Berrettini
• Daniil Medvedev vs. Jiri Lehecka
• Christopher Eubanks vs. Stefanos Tsitsipas
• Hubert Hurkacz vs. Novak Djokovic
• Jannik Sinner vs. Daniel Elahi Galan: sunday
• Roman Safiullin beat Denis Shapovalov (26): 3-6, 6-3, 6-1, 6-3