Madrid Open: Andrey Rublev overcomes illness to win title

Andrey Rublev overcame illness and losing the first set to beat Felix Auger-Aliassime 4-6 7-5 7-5 for his first Madrid Open title.

The Russian world number eight was under the weather with a fever coming into Sunday’s final and looked out of sorts when he trailed 4-1 in the opening set.

But Rublev fought his way back into the match, striking at the end of both sets to get past the world number 35 and win his second Masters 1000 tournament win.

The 26-year-old had lost four consecutive matches before arriving in the Spanish capital but his performance will have encouraged him before the French Open which starts in a fortnight.

Auger-Aliassime, 23, had benefitted from the retirement of his semi-final opponent Jiri Lehecka early in their match and the withdrawal of world number two Jannik Sinner with a hip injury before their quarter-final.

The Canadian had to work hard to save break points in the third set where Rublev was the better player, but was eventually undone by a double fault on match point.