DOHA (Reuters) - Former winner Andrey Rublev has reached the final of the Qatar Open with a 7-5 4-6 7-6(5) win over Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime, and will meet Jack Draper in the decider after the Briton beat Czech Jiri Lehecka.
Rublev, winner in 2020, took the opening set with a break in the final game, before Auger-Aliassime broke the Russian fifth seed’s serve early in the second set and hit three aces in the final game to serve out for the set.
Auger-Aliassime fired 21 aces over the course of the match, compared to Rublev’s eight, but the Canadian went out after the deciding set went to a tiebreak. The Russian gained an early mini-break to lead 2-1 and that proved to be decisive.
“It was super tough today. I felt like there was not much I can do if he is serving like that,” Rublev said.
Draper will bid to win his third ATP title after his 3-6 7-6(2) 6-3 win over Lehecka, having triumphed in Stuttgart and Vienna last year.
The Czech, who beat top seed Carlos Alcaraz in the quarter-finals, took the opening set but after they traded breaks of serve in the second, eighth seed Draper came out on top in the tiebreak.
Draper broke to take a 4-3 lead in the final set, and then broke again to wrap up the semi-final win and will now face Rublev for the fourth time. The Briton has lost all three of their previous meetings.