Rublev, De Minaur, Humbert, and Ruud reach the Final Four of the UTS London Grand Final
Andrey Rublev ends the Round Robin undefeated. Alex de Minaur, Ugo Humbert, and Casper Ruud secure qualification after intense battles.
Andrey Rublev, UTS London 2025 | © Tennis Majors 2025
Three UTS hyper-specialists – Andrey Rublev, Alex de Minaur, Casper Ruud – and French indoor hard-court expert Ugo Humbert will vie for the 2025 UTS champion title on Sunday at the Copper Box Arena in London.
The two only double UTS champions in history, Rublev and De Minaur, claimed the top two spots in Group A, eliminating Tomas Machac (1 win) and Adrian Mannarino (3 losses) from the race.
Meanwhile, Ugo Humbert and Casper Ruud required the point average to separate themselves for the top two positions in Group B after two wins, same total as their follower, Francisco Cerúndolo from Argentina, who managed to get two wins also but was outlasted by the quarter average.
Francisco Cerúndolo, the winner of the Asian stage in Hong Kong last October, came closest to a semi-final spot. He arrived in London with a 3-0 record, which improved to 4-0 on Friday after defeating Ruud in Sudden Death.
However, his early Saturday loss to Humbert (3–1 : 16–10, 14–12, 11–18, 16–9) shifted the advantage entirely to the Frenchman and Casper Ruud. The Norwegian, winner of the season’s clay stage in Nîmes, seized his opportunity by winning his final match in Sudden Death (3–2 : 13–12, 8–16, 8–15, 14–12, 2–0), thereby eliminating Cerúndolo, his earlier conqueror, in the process.
Cerundolo’s commanding victory against Goffin earlier did not yield the outcome he needed (3–0: 19–8, 15–12, 18–7).
“It’s stressful at times but I’ve played the format a few times now so I’m beginning to kind of manage it better,” Ruud said. “Two years ago I also reached the semi-final and I lost to Jack Draper and hopefully this year I can go one step further.”
Humbert, the group leader, expressed his relief at avoiding a heavy loss to Ruud, similar to their ATP Tour encounter two months prior in Stockholm. “I’m super happy with the quality of the match against Casper, despite the loss,” he said. “I played a mega, mega solid third quarter, and then… I’m happy to be qualified for the semi-finals. I played three super matches.”
Andrey Rublev was the only player to qualify with a clean sheet. The Russian finished his Group A journey undefeated, despite a contrasting day. He first defeated the defending champion and top seed, Alex de Minaur (3–1 : 13–12, 8–18, 16–12, 13–12), in a rematch of the 2024 Oslo stage final. He won again, by a small margin, after a very high-profile match, labelled as possibly his best ever at UTS.
Rublev then had to recover from a 2-0 deficit against Adrian Mannarino (3–2: 12–17, 11–13, 18–11, 18–12, 2–0), finally prevailing in Sudden Death. He showed signs of tiredness and nervousness due to the high pace of UTS rules. Rublev commented: “I was kind of not in a perfect mood to fight, being qualified, while Adrian was playing unbelievably, shooting really hard, and not missing much in the first quarters.”
“Because I didn’t expect that level, I couldn’t raise my game and he played better than me, but later on I was able to reset and play better. I was lucky in Sudden Death, playing unbelievably on the first point and lucky that Adrian framed it.”
De Minaur did a clinical job at the end of the day, defeating and eliminating Tomas Machac (3–1 : 10–15, 16–11, 16–13, 16–12), winner of Guadalajara 2025, to secure his semi-final ticket. “This last match was probably the best one I played in the round robin,” said the Australian. “It was an important one because it was do or die, and I’m very happy with the level today to get to the semifinals tomorrow.”
Unpredictable semifinals with UTS history on the line
The recent ATP Finals semi-finalist will meet Humbert in the first semi-final on Sunday, in a rematch of their Nîmes quarter-final earlier this year. Humbert is the only player in the Last Four who has not yet won a Zeus trophy in career, having been stopped by Ben Shelton in Frankfurt 2024’s final.
But his current form certainly gives him serious hope of changing that. “He’s one of the best players in the world on this surface,” Cerúndolo stated.
Rublev, who has reached the Final Four three times in three attempts this season (following Nîmes and Hong Kong), will try to break his losing streak at this stage against Casper Ruud, in a rematch of their round robin clash in the 2023 London Grand Final. The winner of Frankfurt 2023 and Oslo 2024 had won three quarters to one.
A piece of young UTS history will be played out on the Copper Box Arena Rebound Ace court, as Rublev and De Minaur could meet for a third career Zeus trophy, which has never happened before. De Minaur is also fighting to become the first man to defend his UTS champion crown.
