After Bastad, Andrey Rublev shares Hamburg flight with Casper Ruud and his dog Bajas

WATCH: Andrey Rublev defeats Casper Ruud at the 2023 Nordea Open final

Andrey Rublev and Casper Ruud battled it out for over an hour at the Swedish Open in a Top 10 final in Bastad. Afterward, the pair shrugged off any hard feelings as they shared a plane to the next ATP Tour stop in Hamburg.

Rublev emerged victorious 7-6 (3), 6-0 on Sunday, in a match that was interrupted by rain multiple times and, on one memorable occasion, by Ruud’s dog barking during his owner’s serve. The victory extended Rublev’s head-to-head dominance over Ruud to 5-2—including 4-0 on clay—and gave the world No. 7 his second title of the season.

"It is always great to win a title. At the end of the day, we have to lose almost every week, so this is one of two titles this year," said Rublev. "It is a special feeling.”

The Russian player had a night to remember at the tournament winner’s party, where he was shown hanging from the ceiling beams and doing pull-ups at Bastad nightclub Pepe’s Bodega.  But the next day, it was already  time to head to Germany for the ATP 500 level Hamburg European Open.

And when it came to travel, the players opted to share a flight—a fittingly eco-conscious choice for Rublev, who also last month pledged to track and mitigate 100 percent of his tournament travel emissions in 2023.

"Yeah, yeah, we fly together, with Casper,” Rublev said in a Hamburg press conference. “The flight was amazing, it was only half an hour so the flight was perfect.

"The only thing, in the beginning was supposed to fly at 12, and then the guy from the plane texted us in the morning that there is no spots or something, and the earliest they can do is around 4 p.m."

Of course, Ruud’s dog was present too, with Bajas being a regular fixture at post-Wimbledon European clay-court stops. The fluffy white Maltese-Shih Tzu mix stole the show on Sunday, as he barked through a crucial Ruud service game. The player seemed confused at first, and then left the crowd in stitches when he realized out loud, "I think it's my dog, actually!"

Ruud and Rublev are once again the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds in Hamburg, respectively, and will both start on Wednesday to allow time for rest before getting back to work.

Ruud will start against Sebastian Baez, while 2020 champion Rublev opens against Bernabe Zapata Miralles.