Andrey Rublev kept his points and part of his prize money from the 2024 Dubai Championships, even though he shouldn't have according to the rules.
The Russian was playing Alexander Bublik in the Dubai Championships semi-final a few days ago, and in a moment of complete madness, he went over to the line umpire and screamed into their face.
The shocking behaviour created a storm of headlines around the world, especially as Rublev was defaulted in the aftermath. There were many perspectives shared since then but his behaviour being unacceptable has been the common theme.
He has a history of doing similar things, and this was simply too much. The combination of the behavior and the words said forced the umpire to make the call, which some of his colleagues have called too harsh.
Rublev himself disputed the 'bad words' he said, but unless somebody releases the full audio, we'll never know. In any case, by rule Rublev was supposed to lose all of his points and prize money won that week but he didn't.
"Any player who is defaulted shall lose all prize money (gross prize money to be paid to ATP), hotel accommodations and points earned for that event at that tournament."
When the official ATP Rankings were updated, Rublev was number 5, even though he shouldn't have been. He should have dropped down to number 6 because of the default, which should have cost him all the points earned.
He also retained his points in the ATP Race, sitting at 1000 points so far when he should have had 800 due to the default. So what happened? Rublev launched an appeal that was accepted by the ATP on the rule of punishment being too disproportionate. An ATP spokesperson explained the decision to iNews.
"The ATP has reviewed an appeal from Andrey Rublev, following the player’s default from the semi-finals of the ATP 500 tournament in Dubai. he appeal process took into consideration testimonies from the player, officials, as well as a review of all available video and audio materials."
"The appeals committee concluded that, beyond forfeiting the match, customary penalties associated with a default – namely loss of rankings points and prize money for the entire tournament – would be disproportionate in this case. As such, Rublev retains semi-final points and prize money for the tournament."