When Andrei Rublev brilliantly won the Madrid Masters, many Russian fans thought: finally! At that tournament, the Russian showed real skill and, most importantly in his case, he hardly allowed himself any emotional breakdowns. The cherry on the cake was a resounding victory over Carlos Alcaraz in the quarter-finals. After that, beating Felix Auger-Aliassime in the final was already a matter of technique (although I still had to worry, because the Canadian took the first set).
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And where did he go after that? It was as if Andrei had been replaced and the dark side of the tennis player was revealed to the world. Andrei could not complete any of the tournaments Rublev played in after Madrid without fighting his inner demons. The Russian tennis player screamed, swore, hit himself with his racket… Rublev failed in the grass season, suffering two defeats in two matches. And now he is on a streak of four losing matches. His opponents in these matches were, to put it mildly, not the strongest: Matteo Arnaldi, Marcos Girón, Francisco Comesaña and Thiago Tirante.
It is doubly remarkable that during Roland Garros, Andrei, before he had even left the tournament, said that he would soon stop showing emotions on the court. Unfortunately, it still doesn’t work.
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After Comesaña’s sensational defeat at Wimbledon, Rublev explained why he hits himself with a racket. “I wouldn’t do this if I had the opportunity to go out on the court with my racket. But we’re not allowed to touch the grass. So I don’t know. At that moment I couldn’t stand it any more. I needed to get my emotions out,” he said at a press conference.
In such situations, an outside perspective is useful. And specialists have the best knowledge of the subject. Sports psychologist Vadim Gushchin explained in detail how it happens that Andrei loses control of himself. “This is quite a rare behavior, but there are cases when an athlete punishes himself. There is such a type of behavior – self-punishment. We all had parents and coaches who punished us if we did something wrong. We grew up and this punishing part remained embedded in the psyche from childhood.
There are extreme cases when a person inflicts minor beatings on himself. This cannot be called the norm, but it does not happen often. Emotions are seasoning. Andrey is an emotional player. He needs emotions! Without this he cannot play at full strength.
Andrei Rublev
Photo: Christopher Pike/Getty Images
He always has emotions. When they are at the right level, Andrey plays well. Before his defeats, he won the Masters. He spent the internal energy that controls emotions. Andrey correctly said that he needs time. He did not have time to come to his senses. But he wants to win, he always plays to win. He cannot play without a soul,” Sport Day by Day quotes Gushchin as saying.
But Rublev’s mother, Marina Maryenko, said that she did not see anything special in her son’s behaviour. “I don’t see anything special in the fact that Andrey hit himself with a racket. He showed emotions: everyone can lose. I understand that the fans are worried and do not know why everything is like this. But this is sport and nothing bad happened to my son. What doesn’t kill him makes him stronger!” — Maryenko quoted by Sport24.
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Or maybe Shamil Tarpishchev is right? The head of the Russian Tennis Federation has repeatedly expressed the opinion that Andrei does not need to play all the tournaments in a row. Recall that Rublev withdrew from the 2024 Paris Olympics, but for some reason he showed up for the tournament in Umag. That is, everything is clear: at the Games they do not give points and prize money, but in Croatia they do. But all the same: wouldn’t it be better to rest and then take advantage of the fact that your opponents wasted energy at the Olympics?
“In general, these tournaments are no longer important. They are passable. But Rublev does not need to play, but to take care of his health and undergo surgery. He plays all the time and that is why he has achieved such results this year,” TASS quotes Tarpishchev as saying.
And the honorable coach of Russia, Viktor Yanchuk, told when, in his opinion, Rublev will return to his former form.
“Andrey just needs to calm down. He puts in a lot of effort on the court, always trying to play his best. But it turns out that his excessive desire causes his emotions to go off scale, which interferes with his game.
“Andrey needs to calm down, come to his senses and gradually get back into shape. And getting back into shape is a wave-like process: a decline is always followed by an increase. I think Rublev will need two or three months to get over this unfortunate period. But, I repeat, the main thing for him is to calm down and get his game back, so Andrey will regain his lost positions in the rankings,” Legalbet quotes Yanchuk as saying.
Andrey Rublev at Wimbledon 2024
Photo: Francois Nel/Getty Images
By the way, about the qualification. In the updated ranking, Rublev dropped to ninth place. We need to get back into the top eight as soon as possible, because there is a big difference between the eighth and ninth places in terms of ranking in Grand Slam tournaments. The eighth can face the main seed of the tournament in the quarter-finals, and the ninth – in the fourth round, i.e. in the round of 16.
Andrey made it clear that a kind of vicious circle occurs when one defeat leads to the next. “It is difficult to lose several matches in the first round. There is no certainty. You are eliminated from the tournament, then you train for two weeks, waiting for the next match. Unusual situation.
“Usually it was the other way around: there wasn’t much training time. Normally you build up rhythm from match to match, but here there is no such rhythm. You go out to play against someone who, according to the rating, you are supposed to beat, but he has nothing to lose, he starts hitting. This is a good experience for him. You see this and you start to tense up even more and become cautious. You are already playing not to lose. And this is the road to nowhere. Therefore, you only need to win one or two matches,” he said in an interview with the YouTube channel “More!”
At the same time, Rublev expresses his hope that the problems are finally behind him. And none other than two-time Grand Slam champion Marat Safin helped him in this. During his career, Safin has smashed an incredible number of rackets and therefore knows from his own experience what Andrei may be going through now.
“What were you working on? Get your head fixed because the problem was not tennis. Focus on fixing your head. Thank God they fixed it. How? It will be fun. Thanks to Marat Safin,” Andrey added in the interview.
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This week we will find out if Rublev has overcome his problems. Andrey, the 2017 Umag champion, took first place in the tournament and will play Camilo Hugo Carabelli in the second round. It is curious that in the last three cases the draw has given the Russians only Argentines: Comesaña, Tirante and now Carabella. I would very much like to see Rublev back on the court in the first match of Madrid 2024.
