Andrey Rublev and Fernando Vicente, awarded by the ATP

Madrid, Dec 21 (EFE) .- Russian tennis player Andrey Rublev and his Spanish coach Fernando Vicente have been awarded as the player with the best progression of the year and as the best coach of this season, respectively.

Both awards recognize the great work done by the team during this season that Rublev started as 23rd in the world and finished in eighth place in the ATP ranking, reaching the ATP Finals in London for the first time in his career.

Rublev has clinched five ATP titles this season (Doha, Adelaide, Hamburg, St. Petersburg and Vienna) and has achieved great victories such as the quarter-final in Vienna against world number 3 Dominic Thiem.

‘This award means that we have done a great job and that we are working in the right direction. There are still many things to improve and I am happy to do it with Fernando. He has taught me and changed the way I see tennis, ‘Rublev said in a statement after learning of his award.

The player has been working with Fernando Vicente since February 2016. ‘The award, both Andrey’s and mine, is just the consequence of many years of work and many hours dedicated to a sport that gives us so many emotions for good and for what bad, “says Vicente.

“We have had very difficult times during these almost 5 years together, and the truth is that being able to have the recognition of all your co-workers is something that makes you feel happy,” adds the coach.

“I don’t want to forget to thank my wife and son for understanding what it means to be a tennis coach and to the rest of Andrey’s team and the 4Slam Tennis Academy,” he says.

Vicente was competing for the award with Chilean Nicolás Massú, Thiem’s ​​coach; Frenchman Gilles Cervara, coach of Russian Daniil Medvedev; the Italian Ricardo Piatti, coach of his compatriot Jannik Sinner, and Juan Ignacio Chela, coach of his compatriot Diego Schwartzman.

Currently, Rublev and Vicente are in Barcelona, ​​doing the preseason at the 4 Slam Academy and preparing a new course, “where the two main objectives are to improve the results in the ATP 1000 and Grand Slams”, says the note.