Andrey Rublev ‘has had a great year’
Rusedski’s Amazon Prime colleague Tim Henman largely agreed that a lack of variety is ultimately holding back Rublev, and it could well be getting to him. Rublev has been described as a ‘woodpecker’ by Jim Courier due to his propensity to repeatedly do what he does well until he wears down his opponent’s resistance to it. That generally takes the form of peppering his opponent with powerful baseline groundstrokes. It can bring results, as this year has shown. He won his maiden Masters title in Monte-Carlo and hit a (joint) career-high ranking of number five in the world last month. For Henman, though, he still just doesn’t have quite enough in his game. “He’s had a great year, winning a Masters 1000 event, but he needs to break through in the Slams and has lost nine quarter-finals,” he said. “I’m a fan, but he needs to control himself better. “He can improve his second serve as it is too predictable and clearly he needs to control his temper. His passion and work ethic are undeniable, but he is almost trying too hard and putting too much pressure on himself.”READ NEXT: Daniil Medvedev admits to ‘feeling sorry’ for Andrey Rublev after defeats
