Andrey Rublev beats Felix Auger-Aliassime to win his ninth title in Marseille.

Andrey Rublev won his ninth career victory in the Marseille final on Sunday, defeating Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada 7-5, 7-6 (7/4) In his on-court interview, Rublev noted, “Every match I’ve had with Felix from the first time back in 2018 has had drama.” “Everyone has had at least one 7-6 set, and he is now one of the best players.” The Russian, ranked seventh in the world, exacted vengeance on the Canadian, who beat him in a semi-final in Rotterdam last week on his way to his first career title after losing all eight previous finals

“I’ve had two great weeks,” the Canadian stated. “I’m hoping to win more championships.”

Rublev has now won all five hard-court finals he has played in, but he has had a rough 12 months.

Rublev had lost finals in Monte-Carlo, Cincinnati, and Halle since winning in Rotterdam last March.

In the second game of the match, third-seeded Auger-Aliassime broke second-seeded Rublev, but Rublev immediately broke back and broke again in the 12th game to take the set.

Rublev failed to serve out the match at 5-4 in the second set, but saved a set point in his next service game to force a tiebreak, which he won in one hour and 57 minutes.

“I was anticipating it would go to three sets after he started playing even better from 5-4,” Rublev remarked. “I was able to boost my level, but it was challenging.”

The 24-year-old Russian was scheduled to return to the court at 1600 GMT with Ukrainian Denys Molchanov to compete in the doubles final against doubles specialists Raven Klaasen of South Africa and Ben McLachlan of Japan.