Andrey Rublev ‘disappointed’ with himself after ‘worst Slam behaviour ever’
Andrey Rublev has reflected on his ‘bad’ behaviour at Roland Garros, after the world No.6 suffered a straight sets defeat in the third round.
Rublev was beaten by Italian Matteo Arnaldi, 7-6(6) 6-2 6-4, to become the highest seed to exit the men’s singles draw in Paris so far.
However, the main talking point of this match surrounded Rublev’s behaviour, after he smashed his racket, hit himself in the knee and lashed out at the bench.
And when speaking in his post-match press conference, Rublev appeared very deflated about both his performance and behaviour, “Completely disappointed with myself the way I behaved, the way I performed, and I don’t remember behaving worse on a Slams ever. I think it was first time I ever behave that bad. Not much to say.”
This is not the first time that Rublev’s behaviour has created headlines, having also been disqualified earlier this year in Dubai for screaming at a line judge.
The Russian went onto explain why he sometimes behaves this way, “I think it’s not about concentration. I think it’s because the way I behave I put myself completely down, and I give Matteo wings to fly, and he was flying third set unbelievable. It was too late to do something.
“I don’t know. I mean, yes, I was struggling, and then I had really good result in Madrid. Now I’m playing well again. It’s more, I feel that I have a good game, I’m improving. The problem is the head, that today basically I kill myself, and that’s it.”
It was an afternoon to forget for Andrey Rublev at Roland-Garros ????????#RolandGarros pic.twitter.com/U0ou2C16Ca
— Eurosport (@eurosport) May 31, 2024
In the press conference, it was suggested that Rublev should be kinder to himself during matches, but this is something that the 26-year-old admittedly struggles with.
“I feel it’s tough to be, in some moments tough to be kind to myself, and of course if I was able, I’m sure that those moments will never happen,” explained Rublev. “Everything was fine before the match.
“I did good warm-up. I was feeling well. It’s just those things in a match completely, yeah, completely click me and I couldn’t – I start, I wanted, yeah, it was really bad behavior from me.”
Rublev will now have a couple of weeks away from the matchcourt to reflect, before beginning his grass court season at the ATP 500 event in Halle ahead of Wimbledon.
Inside the baseline…
It was not the first time that Andrey Rublev has behaved in this way, but this was definitely one of the more disturbing times this has happened. Not only is this not acceptable for young fans to have to see, but it also cannot be good for Rublev’s wellbeing and definitely impacts his chances to win, as he seems to get inside his own head so easily and sometimes even when he is winning.
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