Marton Fucsovics might be careful what he publicly wishes for given his hopes of never playing Russia’s Andrey Rublev again this season are about to vanish after only 11 days. It stands to reason two of the most in-form players of 2021 will cross paths more often.
But after four straight defeats to the 23-year-old since October, the Hungarian World No. 40 is banking on the score beginning to tilt more in his favour. On Tuesday, he will have the chance to exact revenge in the third round of the Miami Open presented by Itau.
The pair would have squared off at their past four ATP Tour events had Fucsovics not conceded a walkover ahead of the Qatar Open quarter-final at the beginning of the month. Unfortunate luck with draws aside, it points to the 29-year-old’s run of form this season that he is putting himself in positions to face the World No. 8 so often.
“I hope I don’t play you anymore this year,” Fucsovics joked to the Russian as he left the court, following a quarter-final defeat in Dubai this month. It drew a laugh from Rublev, given he had just extended his ATP Head2Head record to 3-1 over his opponent.
While victory over Rublev has proven just out of reach since a win in 2017, Fucsovics has added some big names to his tally of victims in the past six months. Before having his run halted by the Russian in a tight fourth-round clash at Roland Garros last October, he had stunned fourth seed Daniil Medvedev in the opening round.
In February, he saved three match points to defeat former champion Stan Wawrinka in a fifth-set Match Tie-break in the second round of the Australian Open. That four-hour triumph was a nod to what the Hungarian assessed as his greatest qualities.
“I think I’m a fighter, but my game has improved a lot, my serve improved a lot,” he told ATPTour.com in Miami. “I think I’m very consistent from the baseline, I’m moving well around the court and I never get tired.”
The World No. 40 won six straight matches from qualifying to reach his maiden ATP 500 final at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam earlier this month. Rublev had his number there, however the result launched him back into the Top 50 of the FedEx ATP Rankings for the first time since October.
Fearless Fucsovics Ousts Stan In Australian Open Stunner
No. 7 in the FedEx ATP Race to Turin, Fucsovics is building his best start to a season. It has been a long time coming after hugely promising results as a junior.
“In the juniors I was No. 1, I won Wimbledon, I won [the] US Open in doubles,” he said. “I started to play juniors at 17.5, so pretty late, but I came up very quickly in the rankings. I had good skills and I was talented, but after I finished juniors it was tough times…
“I was playing a lot of Futures tournaments. I started to play when I was 16, got my first ranking point at 16, but the big results didn’t come so I went back to juniors to play more matches.”
Having made the move to Germany at age 14 to advance his opportunities, Fucsovics made the decision to move home to Hungary eight years later. Despite priding himself on his work ethic, he was struggling with the transition to the professional ranks and it took a compatriot who had paved the road before him to set him on his own path to success.
“I moved back to Hungary when I was 22. I was coached by a Hungarian former Top 100 player Attila Savolt,” he said. “He helped me through the tough periods to break into the Top 100. He shared a lot of experience with me and he showed me how to work really hard on and off court as well so I worked very hard physically and this is one of my weapons on the tour now.”
His hopes of avoiding Rublev for the remainder of 2021 may be short-lived, but there are bigger wishes at play.
“I’m 40 now in the ranking,” Fucsovics said. “My dream is to be a Top 10 player.”