Otto Virtanen came within two sets of one of the biggest wins of his career at the United States Open, then watched Andrei Rublev take control and finish a five-set comeback. Virtanen, ranked world No. 109, won the first two sets and still left the court a loser after Rublev closed out the match 6-7, 6-7, 6-0, 6-2, 7-6.
The result mattered because Virtanen was not even supposed to be in the main draw a few days earlier. He entered after Marin Cilic withdrew, then turned the opening round into a long fight against a much higher-ranked opponent, Rublev, who was No. 24 in the world. That gap showed in the finish, but not at the start, where Virtanen held his nerve through tiebreaks and even hit five aces in the opening set as Rublev matched him with five of his own.
Virtanen’s route into the tournament also explains why the match drew attention beyond the scoreline. He had been dealing with a back ailment severe enough to force him to retire from a qualifying third-round match, which makes the fact that he lasted five sets here more notable, not less. In the second-set tiebreak, he took the first point on Rublev’s serve and then hit two aces, the kind of start that kept a major upset in reach even after Rublev had three set points on Virtanen’s serve at 6-5 in the set.
Then the balance shifted sharply. Rublev took the third set 6-0 and the fourth 6-2, turning a match that had looked headed for an upset into one decided by endurance and recovery. Virtanen still forced a fifth-set tiebreak, but Rublev won it and erased the two-set deficit that had put him on the brink.
For Virtanen, the loss ends a run that began only because another player stepped aside, but it also leaves a clear measure of where he can go from here: he can trouble a top-25 opponent deep into a Grand Slam match. What remains unresolved is how his back will hold up after a match that stretched to five sets and required him to recover from losing a set 0-6.
