If there’s a blueprint for beating Andrey Rublev, players from the Czech Republic have seemingly cracked it.
Rublev will head into April’s Monte Carlo title defense looking to recapture the magic of last year’s run after suffering a shortened Sunshine Double at the hands of the top two Czech players on the ATP Tour.
In fact, the world No. 6 has now lost to the highest three-ranked players from the Czech Republic over the past 30 days after bowing out to Tomas Machac, 6-4, 6-4, in the second round of the Miami Open Friday.
As Machac shared, he had inside help from a compatriot who previously conquered Rublev.
“I asked Jakub Mensik. He gave me some information, so it’s great that we have a good relationship,” Machac told ATP Media afterwards. “It helps for sure that we can beat these kind of players and help ourselves to get advice on everything.”
Machac arrived at the ATP Masters 1000 event with a career-high No. 60 ranking, making notable gains since the start of the season. The Czech No. 2 ousted then No. 17-ranked Frances Tiafoe in the second round of the Australian Open, dispatched Andy Murray and Lorenzo Musetti at Marseille and got the better of Stan Wawrinka in his Indian Wells opener.
While he had never defeated a Top 10 player coming in, Machac’s confidence shone through against Rublev on a day plagued by wind and rain. The 23-year-old won more baseline points than Rublev and produced more winners off the ground with 16 against nine from his opponent. Machac made the most of a single break in each set by successfully holding in all of his service games to advance after 65 minutes.
Rublev’s defeat to Machac followed recent losses to Czech No. 1 Jiri Lehecka in the third round of the BNP Paribas Open on March 10 and rising teenager Mensik in the Doha quarterfinals on February 22. In between those exits, Rublev was controversially defaulted in the third set of his Dubai semifinal with Alexander Bublik for his behavior towards a line judge, though his ranking points and prize money were later restored by the ATP following the Russian’s appeal of the decision.
Machac improved to 8-5 on the year.
