Rublev beats rain, Arnaldi to reach Montreal final

An extended rain break couldn’t extinguish Andrey Rublev’s explosive run to the final of the Omnium Banque Nationale présenté par Rogers, as the World No. 8 dismissed Italian Matteo Arnaldi 6-4, 6-2 to charge into Monday’s 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.

"The wait has been worth it. I'm happy to be in my first Canadian final." Rublev said. "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 advanced to his sixth ATP Masters 1000 final one day after upsetting World No. 1 Jannik Sinner in the quarter-finals. 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.

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Rublev’s clean-hitting display in the first set took him to the lead after 51 minutes when rain suspended play at 6:05 p.m. local time.

In Monday's final Rublev will play American Sebastian Korda or first-time Masters 1000 semi-finalist Alexei Popyrin in the final. Rublev has already climbed four places to seventh in the PIF ATP Race to Turin and would move past Novak Djokovic into sixth spot should he win the title. Rublev is looking to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals for the fifth consecutive year.

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Arnaldi was competing in his second tour-level semi-final and first at Masters 1000 level. The 23-year-old Italian is currently up 17 spots to No. 29 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings.