Andrey Rublev Beats Alexander Bublik after wonder shot -Wimbledon 2023 results

Russia’s Andrey Rublev reached his first Wimbledon quarter-final with a five-set victory over Alexander Bublik, making a wonder shot in the final game.

Rublev took a thrilling 7-5 6-3 6-7 (6-8) 6-7 (5-7) 6-4 win on Centre Court.

Bublik won the fourth and eighth games of the second set with underarm serves and fought back superbly to take it to five sets, before Rublev triumphed.

In the penultimate point of the match, the seventh seed dived to his right and found a winner that stunned the crowd.

Three-time Wimbledon champion John McEnroe, on commentary for BBC TV, described it as “one of the great shots” of recent years at the Championships, adding that it was “incredible” and “an electric way” to end the match.

Those who were inside a packed Centre Court crowd, treated to one of the matches of the tournament, were on their feet with a standing round of applause after the point.

Bublik looked stunned at the diving effort, before applauding from the other end of the court; however, Rublev later said it was a shot he would not be able to repeat.

“It was the most lucky shot ever,” said Rublev. “It was luck, nothing else. I don’t think I can do it one more time.”

He will face reigning champion Novak Djokovic or Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz in the last eight.

This victory means 25-year-old Rublev has reached the quarter-finals of every Grand Slam, but he has never gone any further having lost in the lost eight of both the Australian and French Opens twice, with three defeats at that stage of the US Open.

Rublev sustained a painful injury to his finger at 4-4 in the opener, signalling he was hurt and needing a medical timeout, but, with his finger bandaged up he was gifted the set thanks to 23rd seed Bublik’s double fault when set point down.

But Bublik, in the last 16 of a slam for the first time, shocked and entertained the crowd with the underarm serves. The first came at the end of the fourth game in the second set, trailing 2-1, with Rublev just about getting there, but only sending his shot into the net.

The second underarm serve happened with Bublik 5-2 behind, Rublev reaching the ball on its second bounce. Amusingly, Bublik’s service game in between, the sixth of the second set, was the one where he lost his serve while utilising a regular service action.

The underarm serve is a risky tactic, as Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina found to his cost in his third-round match on Saturday. He tried it at 8-8 in the final set match tie-break, Danish opponent Holger Rune easily put away the chance and won the match with the very next point.

Rublev was two points away from winning the match in the third set tie-break, as he fought back from 6-3 behind to 6-6, before Bublik, who was born in Russia but changed citizenship to represent Kazakhstan when he was 19, clinched the set with a fine passing shot.

Bublik fought back from 5-3 down to take the fourth set tie-break to force a deciding set.

Russian players were banned at Wimbledon in 2022, following the country’s military invasion of Ukraine, but they have been welcomed back this year, and Rublev advanced into the last eight after he gained a decisive break in the seventh game of the final set on his Centre Court debut.

Shapovalov out, but Dimitrov and Sinner advance

World number 92 Roman Safiullin had never got past the second round of a slam before this tournament but the Russian is into the quarter-finals after fighting back from a set down to beat Canada’s 26th seed Denis Shapovalov.

Safiullin, 25, won 3-6 6-3 6-1 6-3 and will face eighth seed Jannik Sinner after the 21-year-old Italian defeated Colombia’s Daniel Elahi Galan 7-6 (7-4) 6-4 6-3.

Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov wrapped up victory in the last of the third-round matches, beating American Frances Tiafoe, seeded 10th, in straight sets.

Dimitrov, the 21st seed, was two sets ahead on Saturday when rain forced the match to be suspended, with the 2014 semi-finalist sealing a comfortable 6-2 6-3 6-2 victory on Sunday.

He will face Danish sixth seed Holger Rune in the last 16 on Monday.