Asked what was going through his mind after being down 2-1 in sets against Australian Alex de Minaur in the fourth round of the Australian Open, tennis player Andrei Rublev said: “You don’t want to look into my head. It’s like a horror movie.”
Yet Rublev managed to turn the tide in Melbourne on Sunday and take control of the match. Rublev even won the fifth set of the no less than four hours and fourteen minutes long match easily, 6-0. To the dismay of the home crowd, who saw the last compatriot thrown out of the tournament with the loss of De Minaur.
For example, the 26-year-old Russian Rublev, the current number five in the world rankings, will be in the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam tournament for the tenth time in his career this Tuesday. His opponent, the 22-year-old Italian Jannik Sinner, number four in the world, is difficult enough in itself. Of the six games they played, Sinner won four.
But another statistic is perhaps more disturbing for Rublev in this light: of the nine quarter-finals he has played at Grand Slams so far, he has won none. From his first, against Rafael Nadal in 2017 at the US Open, to the ninth against compatriot and friend Daniil Medvedev (also in New York); Rublev fished behind the net every time.
When it really counts, can he handle the pressure? Rublev himself is open about it. He can get in his own way enormously, he said in an interview in December shared on Instagram. “Sometimes you want to win so bad that it becomes an obsession,” he said. But you can’t win, Rublev continued, if you keep blaming yourself for everything.
And that frustration with himself sometimes bursts out, and not just during the grand slams. Such as in November last year, during the ATP Finals in Turin against the Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, the number two in the world.
Rublev hits a ball, giving Alcaraz a service break, and then hits himself on his left knee with his racket once, twice, three, four, five, six times. So hard that his knee starts to bleed. Alcaraz wins the match in two sets.
Or during the quarter-final of the US Open in 2022, against the American Frances Tiafoe, when out of sheer misery, 2-0 down in sets, he collapses on his chair and first bites a ball and then bursts into tears into his towel.
Aggressive play
Rublev was born in Moscow. His mother once coached Anna Kournikova, a former top ten player. He is one of the few top Russian tennis players who speaks out against that war. For example, he wrote in early March 2022, a few days after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, ‘No war please‘ on the lens of a TV camera at an ATP tournament in Dubai.
Rublev himself has lived in Barcelona for years, where he works with his Spanish trainer Fernando Vicente.
Rublev likes to play aggressive tennis and almost always looks for an attack. Particularly with his forehand, with which he takes balls so quickly after the bounce that his opponents have only minimal time to react, he can dictate rallies and he likes to drive in the points, often after walking around his backhand.
But sometimes his attacking game also turns against him, and then he struggles mentally.
At such moments he is his own worst enemy, Rublev says against last year The Guardian, in a look back at all his Grand Slam quarter-final losses. “Those matches were very, very disappointing for me, because at the end of the day I lost them because of my own actions.” He really had a chance to reach the semi-finals, said Rublev, “but because of my emotions I couldn’t really play.”
He is working on it, he says in the same conversation. He no longer tries to pass the blame on the wind, the sun, the crowd, the referee. He wants to recognize his own achievements. “It’s about being honest with yourself, with your team, listening to them, sharing your fears, and telling them what’s going on in your head.” What also helps him is meditation, he continues. And furthermore, even when he is grumpy, he tries “not to be negative.”
And who knows, he may benefit from it. In any case, he has been in the top ten for years, an achievement in itself. But in April 2023 he experienced his biggest sporting victory to date. In the final of the prestigious clay tournament in Monte Carlo, he fought back well against the Dane Holger Rune, who himself seemed to suffer from a mental blockage.
Funny off the track
As fiercely as Rublev can react on the court, he is just as friendly and funny off the court. After winning in Monte Carlo, he bumbled his way through an interview, confusing the president of the tennis association and the Princess of Monaco in his acceptance speech. “Too much sun, boys,” he said afterwards, when he realized his mistake. And he thanked the audience, who stood behind him, despite his Russian nationality.
What is great about Rublev, said commentator and former professional Andy Roddick afterwards on the American Tennis Channel, is “his openness.” “He doesn’t pretend to be anything other than what he is. He just says: I was nervous.” Roddick called it “refreshing.” “I notice that I’m rooting for him, because he always says exactly what he thinks.”