Roman Safiullin beat Andrey Rublev 14-12 in a fifth-set tiebreak in the first round of Wimbledon, and the loss sent the 12-seed out immediately. Rublev had led two sets to one before the fourth set slipped away, then the match turned into a deciding tiebreak that lasted long enough to settle on one break in rhythm, one missed point, one answer.
Arthur Rinderknech is not part of the verified match facts, but the result still lands in the same first-round section of the draw that was supposed to separate names with stronger grass records from those carrying more uncertainty onto the surface. Safiullin did that work at the end, and Rublev left without a second-round match.
Rublev lost control late
Rublev’s lead was the hard part to miss. He was up two sets to one, which put him in position to finish the match before it reached the kind of final-set pressure that can erase an advantage in a few points.
Instead, the fourth set got away from him and the match moved to a fifth. Once it reached the tiebreak, the margin shrank to the smallest possible edge, and Safiullin took it 14-12.
Wimbledon cut short again
The defeat knocked the 12-seed out of Wimbledon in the first round for the second time in three years. Rublev had reached the Wimbledon quarterfinals in 2023, so the exit lands against a recent high point rather than a long record of early losses.
There is also a broader pattern attached to that slide. Since the French Open in 2024, he has not made it past the fourth round at any major, so this loss fits a stretch in which the deepest runs have stopped arriving at the biggest events.
Safiullin moves on
Safiullin’s reward is straightforward: he advanced to the second round. The match did not hinge on a runaway set or a lopsided scoreline; it ended in the most compressed format possible, with the final tiebreak extending to 14-12 before the outcome was settled.
What remains on the page is the same thing that decided it on court: Rublev had the lead, then lost it, and Safiullin stayed in the point-by-point fight long enough to finish it.
