Andrey Rublev recorded his 50th win of the year at the Davis Cup Finals on Saturday, battling past Roberto Quiroz in the first match of the Russian Tennis Federation's group tie against Ecuador, 6-3, 4-6, 6-1.
Rublev had break points for a 6-3, 4-2 lead but ended up having to go to a third.
“I’m really happy that I bring my first point to my team,” the Russian told DavisCupFinals.com after the match. “I’m happy that I won. I’m happy to help my team. It’s going to be a long week, with lots of tough matches.”
Rublev is the seventh player, male or female, to reach 50 tour-level wins this year, and the first six who did it were all men: Alexander Zverev, Daniil Medvedev, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Casper Ruud, Novak Djokovic and Cameron Norrie.
The victory over Quiroz was also Rublev’s 15th career Davis Cup win, making him just the fifth player from the Russian Tennis Federation to reach that milestone.
He then got his 16th Davis Cup win later in the day, partnering Aslan Karatsev to beat Gonzalo Escobar and Diego Hidalgo in the doubles match, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4.
Rublev is now 9-4 in singles and 7-5 in doubles at Davis Cup.
MOST DAVIS CUP WINS BY A RUSSIAN, SINGLES & DOUBLES COMBINED**
44: Yevgeny Kafelnikov (44-28)
31: Marat Safin (31-21)
21: Mikhail Youzhny (21-17)
17: Nikolay Davydenko (17-11)
16: Andrey Rublev (16-9)
14: Igor Andreev (14-14)
** Records apply to the Russian Tennis Federation team that has competed at Davis Cup since 1993.