Alex de Minaur digs deep, saves seven match points in Qatar Open loss to Andrey Rublev

Alex de Minaur dug deep at the Qatar Open, saving seven match points before ultimately falling to defeat against Andrey Rublev.

De Minaur eventually succumbed 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (10-8) to the volatile Russian in an epic quarter-final in Doha on Thursday.

About 45 minutes after saving his first match point at 5-2 down in the final set with the most spectacular of rallies, second-seeded de Minaur was still battling in his own uniquely tigerish fashion to save the day when one last backhand strayed wide as he tried to repel an eighth match point.

Rublev, who'd earlier been in racquet-chucking mood while attempting to cope with de Minaur's never-say-die qualities, could only laugh wearily afterwards when quizzed about what it was like to face such epic resistance: "Whatever, I wanna punch him!"

These two nearly always go the distance, as in De Minaur's agonising fourth-round defeat in this year's Australian Open, but this was the closest of the lot, as the Australian himself managed to earn one match point in the tiebreak after all his heroics.

Eventually, though, after two hours 39 minutes, world number 10 Rublev made it 4-4 in their head-to-head record as he seeks to regain the title he won in 2020.

It was another heartbreaker for world number eight de Minaur, who'd hoped to reach his second straight ATP 500 tournament final in the space of a fortnight after losing to Carlos Alcaraz in the Rotterdam Open.

Andrey Rublev was very frustrated as Alex de Minaur battled. (Getty Images: DeFodi/Tnani Badreddine)

Rublev called de Minaur's efforts "extraordinary", not least because the Russian had earned his first match point at 5-2, only for the Sydneysider to defend for his life before ending a fantastic 23-stroke rally with a searing forehand winner.

"I did everything amazing and he just played an unreal rally," shrugged the Russian.

"In most matches, normally after these points, they win — it's a turning point."

Certainly, it increasingly felt as if the game would move de Minaur's way as he then saved another match point, again in a marathon rally, with Rublev serving at 5-3.

The Russian was so frustrated as de Minaur got the match back on serve, he smashed his racquet to the ground for a second time to earn a code violation.

"When I lost my serve, I said, 'OK, whatever, if I'm gonna lose, at least just try to do your best until the end'," shrugged Rublev.

So de Minaur had to work even harder then to save three more match points on his own delivery at 5-4, coming up big with his serves, to take the game into the tiebreak, when Rublev repelled the only match point against him at 5-6 down.

In the semis, Rublev will tackle Canada's Félix Auger-Aliassime, who beat Daniil Medvedev when the Russian retired after losing the first set 6-3.

“Unfortunately, I had food poisoning. Very disappointed to end my run here in Doha like this as I feel like I was playing well,” Medvedev said in a statement.

Auger-Aliassime said on court he thought Medvedev was “playing normal” until he retired.

“And then I broke, I held my serve. And he just told [the umpire] that he didn’t want to shake our hands because he was sick. I hope it’s nothing too bad. I was surprised,” the Canadian said.

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Shock of the day came with top seed Carlos Alcaraz being beaten 6-3 3-6 6-4 by Czech world number 25 and Brisbane International winner Jiří Lehečka, who'll play either Briton Jack Draper or Italy's Matteo Berrettini in the other semi.

It is Alcaraz's second loss of the year, his only other defeat in 2025 coming against Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open quarter-final.

"The match was up and down since the beginning," the 23-year-old Lehečka said.

"So for me to win a match like that against a player like this is a super big achievement. I believed in myself. I knew that I had the level to produce that kind of tennis.

"I didn't back down. I wanted to push him to his limits. The way I trusted my game was the key today."

AAP/AP/ABC

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