Dan lost in 3 but put up a decent showing and has had 7 matches in oz since season started, so maybe not a bad thing with the AO in a few days. Should be well honed now.
Exceptional performance and perfect timing really. Rublev hasn't dropped a set to anyone of late and, as you imply, no better time to take a loss having matched him for two sets.
Tennis Abstract rate Rublev as the 7th best man at the moment, hard to argue with that on current form, as he reaches Adelaide final. Each of the players in 7-9 diverge from actual rankings but are probably good proxies as to where they really stand currently.
Men's Elo Leaders More Ranking Reports
1 Novak Djokovic 2223
2 Rafael Nadal 2189
3 Roger Federer 2167
4 Daniil Medvedev 2078
5 Stefanos Tsitsipas 2040
6 Dominic Thiem 2038
7 Andrey Rublev 1982
8 Denis Shapovalov 1962
9 Alex De Minaur 1956
10 Alexander Zverev 1953