6 days ago, talented Russian Andrey Rublev lost in the final qualifying round of the ATP 250 event in Umag, and he reached the main draw as a lucky loser when Borna Coric decided to withdraw due to neck problems. Andrey seized his chance with both hands, winning 5 matches to lift his first ATP title, defeating Italian veteran Paolo Lorenzi in the final by 6-4 6-2 in 76 minutes. Thus, world number 74 became the first lucky loser with an ATP title since Rajeev Ram in Newport 2009 and only the 4th since 1990! In addition, Andrey is the second teenager born in 1997 who managed to win the ATP crown (Alexander Zverev), and we have to remind that teens failed to do so in more than 8 years (between Cilic in 2008 and Zverev last year).

With these points, Rublev will crack the Top 50 tomorrow, as the only teenager in that group, and this will help him a lot in his quest to book the place in the U21 Masters in Milan in November. Rublev is the second Russian champion in Umag, after Nikolay Davydenko in 2009.

Back in 2013, Andrey won his first pro title in USA F31 Futures after just turning 16, as the 3rd youngest champion at that level after Richard Gasquet and Mario Ancic but his progress wasn't as fast as Zverev's was, struggling to draw the best from his game and often losing matches after a mental meltdown.

2016 started well, he claimed his first Challenger crown in Quimper but that was all he did, stagnating in the rest of the year without any progress in the rankings. That seems to change lately, as he started to play with more consistency, winning 8 matches in the last 3 tournaments he entered.

This was the 24th ATP tournament for Andrey in a career (a lot of wild cards when he was younger) and he is the 5th first-time winner in 2017, after Borna Coric, Ryan Harrison, Gilles Muller, and Yuichi Sugita. Final result:

↓ SHOW RESULTS ↓

[LL]Andrey Rublev (RUS) vs [4]Paolo Lorenzi (ITA) 6-4 6-2



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