If there is a recognizable name within the elite of the ATP circuit in recent years, that is the one of Andrey Rublev. I say recognizable by its consistency, matched by very few players and a quality that deserves much praise in today’s tennis, in which young promises lose in the first round against inferior players without anyone raising an eyebrow. Precisely because of this, the Russian stood out from the rest: it was very difficult to see him lose against lower-ranked players, the ‘minor’ tournaments (ATP 250 y ATP 500) were his particular hunting ground and his evolution seemed quite organic, climbing steps with slow but firm steps. However, it seems that this growth has reached a stop, a stop that pushes Rublev to a place where no one wants to be: the panic room.
It does not exist physically, but yes mentally. There are no greater bars than those that reside in your head, and the inner demons now visit Andrey in practically every encounter. In fact, perhaps leaving the top-10 is not such a remarkable circumstance as to throw our hands in our heads: what does worry us and a lot are the constant displays of frustration of the Russian in each game. As much as it has been an issue to deal with throughout his career, now the rival, the track or the tournament does not matter: it is increasingly common to see the Moscow player put the racket in his mouth, look with a few faces friends to your bench, threaten to destroy your own racket or physically hit (this being, without a doubt, the most worrying gesture of all).
And all this, of course, is reproduced in his tennis, which has lost the calmness and controlled aggressiveness that his plan A showed off against inferior players. Now Andrey can have successful stretches in which he kisses the lines, but a slight drop due to a specific circumstance seems to lead him to the self-destruct button. What circumstances have led to this bump in your tennis? It does not seem difficult to point to the obvious circumstances that have surrounded Wimbledon: since Andrey signed that gesture “for peace” at the Dubai tournament, he has been the target of many cross-statements regarding the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He himself offered to lead various solutions in order to avoid the Russians’ veto, proposals that remained unanswered and that “forced” Rublev to take a summer break during the grass tour.
FAR FROM ITS LEVEL IN ITS NATURAL HABITAT
Perhaps affected by everything extra-sports, his temperamental character has not helped him to regain calm and poise on the track. On the contrary, he has exacerbated those moments of frustration, which become constant after each defeat. Throughout this summer, Rublev has fallen to Sebastian Baez, Francisco Cerundolo, Yoshihito Nishioka, Daniel Evans and, last but not least, Taylor Fritz. What do they have in common? All of them are players ranked lower than the Soviet one. Regardless of whether he is on clay or hard court, Andrey has been unable to maintain a consistent level against players who have already lost respect for him, who look at him regardless of his top-10 status.
A condition, of course, that he will lose as of this week. A fan of Russian shared a conversation with Ferdinand Vincenthis coach, on social networks: Fer affirmed that Andrey has been working for weeks with a “coach mental”, a person who tries to calm those voices in his head. This implies that Rublev himself is aware of the problems in which he is involved, and that they have opened a ‘recovery’ process that still seems long and calm. The Russian will only be himself again in the same way that he approached the world elite: without making too much noise, going grain by grain, like a small bee that seeks to compete with the queens of the hive. The process has only just begun, but Rublev has a big goal: get out of the panic room. Only that will allow him to reach new heights in a still very long career.
