Stat of the Day: Andrey Rublev battles to milestone 250th win of career in Monte Carlo

World No. 6 Andrey Rublev made a winning start to his Rolex Monte Carlo Masters campaign on Tuesday afternoon, battling back from a set down to defeat Spain’s Jaume Munar, 4-6, 6-2, 6-2, in his opening match at the Masters 1000 tournament.

And with the victory, the Russian hit a big career milestone—it was the 250th tour-level win of his career.

Rublev is the 25th active men’s player to record 250 career wins, the ninth man born in 1990 or later to achieve the feat, and just the fourth man born in 1995 or later to do it after Alexander Zverev, Daniil Medvedev and Stefanos Tsitsipas.

MEN BORN IN 1990 OR LATER WITH 250+ CAREER WINS (tour-level):
381: Grigor Dimitrov [born in 1991]
372: Milos Raonic [born in 1990]
348: Alexander Zverev [born in 1997]
331: Dominic Thiem [born in 1993]
323: David Goffin [born in 1990]
296: Daniil Medvedev [born in 1996]
268: Pablo Carreno Busta [born in 1991]
264: Stefanos Tsitsipas [born in 1998]
250: Andrey Rublev [born in 1997]

Diego Schwartzman is likely to become the next man to join the above list—the Argentine, born in 1992, has 241 career wins.

Rublev came out swinging against Munar on Tuesday, breaking at 15 in the very first game of the match en route to building a 3-1 lead, but the Spaniard got the break back a few games later and broke one more time to clinch the 54-minute opening set.

From there Rublev shifted gears though, storming out to a 5-0 lead in the second set, and after closing out the set a few games later, he broke for a 2-1 lead in the decider and didn’t look back, eventually breaking again for 5-2 before serving it out.

“I started to feel I had to change something,” Rublev said of the second set turnaround. “I had to play more aggressive, I cannot just push the ball, because in the end he is running much better than me, and then he’s waiting for the right moment and he changes much easier, because I’m not putting pressure on him.

“From the second set I started to change more down the line, I started to play more aggressive, I started more forehand, and I was able to lead 4-0 really fast. And then somehow I was able to keep playing that way, and then win the match."

It was a high quality match—they both finished with more winners than unforced errors, Rublev 36 to 34 and Munar 15 to 10. Munar’s forehand produced 10 winners to just 1 unforced error.

Rublev is the first player into the round of 16 in Monte Carlo.