ATP 250 Almaty R2: Mannarino def. [4] Rublev 6-4, 3-6, 6-3
posted by u/elevenfiftyneun · 2026-10-21 12:23 UTC
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## Top comments
1. u/vi_who · 2026-10-21 12:24 UTC
Rublev lost to 38 yo bald man in indoor conditions lol
2. u/jovanmilic97 · 2026-10-21 12:31 UTC
It's why I never took his few recent China swing wins like anything special, hasn't faced a single top 50 I think. Even there, he nearly lost to Griekspoor in Beijing R1 and almost let Gaston pull off a comeback despite serving twice to win the set in Hangzhou.
Now back to his up and down train he's been on this year, Sakamoto beat him quite easily too
3. u/ALifeAsAGhost · 2026-10-21 12:36 UTC
The point was that he was actually playing at a high enough level to dispatch the lower ranked players easily up until the second set against ADM in Beijing (the Gaston match was due to a choke not the level). Whereas he hasn’t been able to do that consistently this year mainly at the big tournaments
4. u/jovanmilic97 · 2026-10-21 12:45 UTC
There's definitely some mental component in his inconsistency here for sure. Lots of three set or five set losses too when things get tight
5. u/ALifeAsAGhost · 2026-10-21 12:49 UTC
Yeah I mean I would actually argue the fact he’s losing in 3 is way better than that streak he had of losing every match 6-4 6-4 a couple of years ago. But the amount of times this year he’s been broken at 3-4 in the last set has been insane. Plus he clearly has a complete mental block at masters rn
I would also say he’s shown flashes of a better peak level this year than last year, it just doesn’t look like it at all when you look at his results
6. u/vi_who · 2026-10-21 12:37 UTC
Also same for Bublik being close to top-10. For me it's a joke. Won a few 250s against players around top-100. Sometimes rating means that you just collected points. There are a lot of examples of this
7. u/vi_who · 2026-10-21 12:34 UTC
Same thinking. Same situation with Medvedev last year he won Almaty and people started thinking that he regains his form. Meh ppl are dumb
8. u/flippemans · 2026-10-21 12:45 UTC
Ok, but he did regain his form. He's been better in 2026 than he was in 2025.
9. u/vi_who · 2026-10-21 13:44 UTC
I said nothing about 2026. Read carefully
10. u/Kingslayer1526 · 2026-10-21 14:26 UTC
But Medvedev won Almaty after reaching the semifinals in Beijing and Shanghai and he only lost in Beijing due to cramps, otherwise he was comfortably beating Tien
So that was the culmination of his rise in form
11. u/eboe89 · 2026-10-21 12:46 UTC
I mean Meddy is still far from prime meddy but he has been much better since last fall. 3 titles this year and two slam R16s, 2 masters semis and one masters final. He is probably going to Turin this year whereas last year he nearly left the top 20 at one point.
12. u/vi_who · 2026-10-21 13:44 UTC
I said nothing about 2026. Read carefully
13. u/lisq3 · 2026-10-21 12:35 UTC
Amazing mental & tennis improvement. Kudos to Marat Safin and his "BEST TEAM ON TOUR" as their academy describes them
14. u/PenkoEnjoyer · 2026-10-21 12:26 UTC
the Knicks did the same but to a 41yo, so Andrey is learning from the champs
15. u/MMartin_18 · 2026-10-21 12:26 UTC
80s are still bullying 90s gen.
16. u/eboe89 · 2026-10-21 12:28 UTC
Tbf Mannarino has also taken out Cobolli, Tien and Mensik this year so he’s spreading the bullying to all decades
17. u/presco2007 · 2026-10-21 12:34 UTC
it's funny to me how often mannarino seems to trouble and even beat seeded players yet doesn't do well enough to get seeded himself.
18. u/ALifeAsAGhost · 2026-10-21 12:37 UTC
Well a big issue for him is that his game only works on grass and fast hard. On clay he has the worst record possible for a player his ranking
19. u/Efendiskander · 2026-10-21 13:21 UTC
Even got spanked on clay by Ugo Humbert, it's that bad
20. u/DTtennisEnjoyer · 2026-10-21 13:25 UTC
To be fair he is much worse on clay than Humbert and won zero matches on clay in 2026