DOHA: Former winner Andrey Rublev reached the final of the Qatar Open on Friday with a 7-5, 4-6, 7-6(5) win over Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime, and will meet Jack Draper in the decider after the Briton beat Czech Jiri Lehecka.

Rublev, winner in 2020, took the opening set with a break in the final game, before Auger-Aliassime broke the Russian fifth seed’s serve early in the second set and hit three aces in the final game to serve out for the set.

Auger-Aliassime fired 21 aces over the course of the match, compared to Rublev’s eight, but the Canadian went out after the deciding set went to a tiebreak.

The Russian gained an early mini-break to lead 2-1 and that proved to be decisive.

“It was super tough today. I felt like there was not much I can do if he is serving like that,” Rublev said.

“He was serving well and I was just saying, okay, I cannot do much, this is one of the best servers on Tour. I just need to try to guess and when I have a moment, just go for it.”

Draper will bid to win his third ATP title after his 3-6, 7-6(2), 6-3 win over Lehecka, having triumphed in Stuttgart and Vienna last year.

The Czech, who beat top seed Carlos Alcaraz in the quarter-finals, took the opening set but after they traded breaks of serve in the second, eighth seed Draper came out on top in the tiebreak.

Draper broke to take a 4-3 lead in the final set, and then broke again to wrap up the semi-final win and will now face Rublev for the fourth time. The Briton has lost all three of their previous meetings.

“I’m definitely a different player since I last played him,” said Draper, who last faced the Russian at the 2023 US Open.

“Someone I respect massively. Someone who’s been top 10 for many years now. He’s going to come out and play incredibly well. I watched him play here this week. He’s there every ball. So I’ll be ready for that one.”

Published in Dawn, February 23rd, 2025