When Andrey Rublev and Jannik Sinner meet for the first time Thursday in Vienna, fans may be forgiven for seeing double when two of the ATP’s brightest young stars kick off the evening session on Next Gen Court. Both are lanky 6’ 2” right-handers with flowing red hair and thunderous groundstrokes. The pair even shares the same kit sponsor in Nike, making it hard at times for fans to tell them apart.
Just don’t get their names mixed up, as Rublev’s countryman Daniil Medvedev found out the hard way during the Australian Open in January. "Andrey gets really, really angry if you call him ‘Jannik’ because he looks like Jannik Sinner a little bit," said Medvedev with a laugh on Tennis United in July.
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"During this Australian Open he comes into the locker room and I said, 'Hi Jannik, how are you?' He got angry, he [went] away for 10 minutes, came back 10 minutes later, and goes, 'You are Davydenko then!'"
Rublev eased into the second round of the Erste Bank Open after a 6-3, 6-2 victory over qualifier Norbert Gombos 6-3, 6-2 on Monday, while 19-year-old Italian Sinner had to battle past Casper Ruud, 7-6(2), 6-3 on Wednesday to advance to win his opener.
Rublev and Sinner will hope that their best tennis stands out on the court, as they clash for a spot in the Vienna quarter-finals against No. 2 seed Dominic Thiem or Chile’s Cristian Garin.
from Tennis - ATP World Tour https://ift.tt/31TbjAN
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