Russian tennis star Andrey Rublev has opened up on his vastly improved service game, which, apart from his power-packed groundstrokes, has been the feature of his recent run of wins.

Extending his unbeaten streak at ATP 500 events, the Russian World Number 8 on Thursday stormed into the semi-finals of the Dubai Open with a comfortable straight-set victory over Hungarian Marton Fucsovics.

He will play compatriot Aslan Karatsev later on Friday for a place in the final.

Andrey Rublev says he struggled to crank up his serves to 200 kmph, now touches 220 kmph easily

Rublev, who lifted his fourth straight ATP 500 championship title at the Rotterdam Open recently, has now gone unbeaten for 23 matches at this level.

He went past three-time Grand Slam champion Andy Murray’s mark of 21 consecutive wins with a fourth-round win over American Taylor Fritz on Wednesday.

The Russian is within touching distance of overtaking 20-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer, who currently leads with 28 straight ATP 500 wins.

Speaking after his win on Thursday, Rublev credited his faster and more incisive serves to him building his physical strength and a change of racquets over the last few years.

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Rublev says he has also added 20 kmph to his second serve

Rublev said that he would earlier struggle to crank it up to 200 kmph but now regularly touches the 220 kmph mark without taking too much out of himself. “I was never serving even 200, now I am serving often 220, and this is amazing,” the Russian said.

A piece of statistic that stood out in his win over Fucsovics on Thursday was that he recorded a healthy 76% of first serves to his opponent’s 57%.

Rublev added that he struggled with double faults previously and even when he didn’t, he would send down a limp second serve, “maybe 120, or 100, or something like that”, and his rivals would kill it “almost every time”.

“Now I’m serving (a) much harder second, I’m changing directions,” the Russian said, adding that while his second serve, on average, is still not as powerful as “other players”, but he has added a good 20 kmph to it. “Now I think the average of my second serve is 150 or something like that,” Rublev said.

The Russian picked up five Tour titles in 2020, the most in the last calendar year.

Read More: Andrey Rublev Inches Closer to Roger Federer in Incredible Streak, Surpasses Andy Murray