Andrey Rublev vs Ugo Humbert Prediction – Tennis Picks 10-13-2023

Fifth seed Andrey Rublev will play French lefty Ugo Humbert in the quarterfinal of the 2023 Shanghai Masters. The match will be played on Friday, October 13, 2023.

Andrey Rublev overcame an early deficit to beat 12th seed Tommy Paul 7-5, 7-5 in an hour and 35 minutes. Rublev remains the highest seed remaining at the Shanghai Masters following Carlos Alcaraz’s shock exit on Wednesday. The Russian recovered brilliantly in the first set, instantly hitting back after dropping his serve and managing to break the American late in the first set. Rublev repeated the trick in the second set, getting the decisive and lone break of the second set in the 11th game before finishing the match on his serve. Rublev tallied 23 winners and improved his head-to-head record over Paul to 5-1.

Ugo Humbert, meanwhile,  backed up his sensational win over Stefanos Tsitsipas by knocking out power-hitting American J.J. Wolf in two routine sets. Humbert, who is set to rejoin the Top 30 at the end of the tournament, won 6-1, 6-2, recording six aces and winning an average of 90% points behind both his first and second deliveries. Humbert did not face a single break point in the match in a very clinical performance.

Andrey Rublev will be looking to exact revenge for his last defeat to Ugo Humbert at the 2023 China Open this past week. But it looks like that defeat is unlikely to cost him a place at the season-ending ATP Finals in Turin, with Rublev currently occupying fifth spot in the race and the other contenders failing to make any inroads. Humbert was outside the world’s Top 100 as recently as January, and his decision to play at the ATP Challenger level has been for the greater good in the long term. Next week, he’ll return to the world’s Top 30. Nevertheless, Rublev will fancy his chances here with all the big favorites exiting the tournament. He hasn’t dropped a set this week and he’s got a solid chance of going all the way.