Andrey Rublev has been demonstrating for several years that his presence in the top-10 is the result of his great work alongside Fernando Vicente. The Spanish coach and the Russian continue to extend their professional relationship after 7 years and everything indicates that in 2024 the Russian wants to take his tennis to the next level. Vicente offered an extensive and interesting interview in which he recounts what their beginnings together were like and from which we rescued some of his most notable confessions.
Champion mentality
“We are still working on it, it never ends for any player. It never ends. You need to be ready. At this level every detail turns out to be a lot when you lose focus. For example, at the ATP Finals he played very well at the beginning, and as soon as you drop the level, you’re out. This has happened to him in some parts of the season. You can see Djokovic, Medvedev or Rafa who win or lose, but they have this balance. Sometimes they go crazy, but they still have the same level. Andrey’s level drops as soon as he starts going crazy with these things. And he needs to understand that. That is why we are working to make him understand that this cannot happen if these things are to be achieved,” he confessed. Fernando Vicente about Andrey Rublev a Tennis Majors.
Working with Rublev is easy
“It’s easy because you don’t need to motivate Andrey. You have children who say they want to be tennis players and they are not making the effort that you have to make. That never happened with Andrey. He works hard, there is not a single day that you see in practice: ‘Fuck, Andrey, what happened? It’s been two days that you’re not pushing, you don’t want to work.’ Never”.
Where have you seen the best Rublev?
“At Wimbledon against Novak. He lost, but it was the line he followed during the game. I will also say against Novak in the Paris Masters, although in Paris he was very tired because he went to sleep at three or four in the morning and they played at four in the afternoon afterwards. Another quarterfinal match in Monte Carlo with Rafa on clay, it was a very good victory. “He beat Federer, he beat all the best players, but for me the highest level is when you can say, ‘Fuck, this is a good match,’ even if you lost.”
On Rublev’s temperament on the court
“Andrey respects all the players, but sometimes he loses his mind. He needs to understand that at this level you can lose, you can lose to these big guys. Sometimes those crazy things he does are like when a child takes away his toy: when he starts to lose, he wants the toy back and then he starts crying. And this is the problem: he loses the first set and the idea is to try to maintain the same level until the end. We are doing things with the mental coach, but we have ups and downs. […]. You need to understand that you can lose and that you can win, that it is not just about winning and winning.”
What do you need to win a Slam?
“The mentality. It should be like, ‘I’m ready, I’ll work and I’ll be ready to do it.’ Avoid the stress of ‘I want to win’. Everyone wants to get to the quarter-finals or semi-finals, but if you don’t really understand that you need to save energy, stress means that you are thinking about the future. “You have to believe and then be humble and understand that we are all doing the same job.”
2023-12-25 21:00:00
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