Felix Auger-Aliassime in Final as 'Crazy' Madrid Injury Curse Strikes Again

Russian seventh seed Andrey Rublev beat American Taylor Fritz 6-4 6-3 on Friday to reach his first Madrid Open final where he will face Felix Auger-Aliassime. The Canadian advanced after the Czech Republic's Jiri Leheckapulled out injured midway through the first set of their semi-final.

Rublev, the highest seed left in the tournament at the semi-final stage, survived an early wobble to see off the 12th seed, and was all smiles after his straight-sets win, and will now be favourite to claim his second title of the year. Fritz broke serve in the opening game, with the Russian showing early signs of frustration, but Rublev composed himself to break back immediately and ended the set winning two games to love to take the opener.

The second set went with serve until Rublev broke to lead 4-2 and it ended in a similar vein to the first, this time the Russian winning his final two service games to love, closing the gap in their head-to-head record, with four wins and five losses.