Andrey Rublev endured plenty of drama in his title-winning run at the Madrid Open, but he also endured even more off the court.
Most of us saw what happened on the court through matches like the one against Carlos Alcaraz or the final against Felix Auger-Aliassime. The Russian was amazing after struggling for a couple of weeks.
We didn't know about the illness that plagued him through much of the event. He revealed some of it afterwards, crediting the doctors for making it possible for him to play because he really was struggling.
He couldn't sleep, and he could barely do anything properly, but once the medicine and the adrenaline kicked in, Rublev produced the best week of tennis he had in a long time.
He hopes to bring the same level to the Italian Open, but he's yet to start his campaign. A few days ago, there were rumors about him possibly missing the event. That won't happen, but he told the media in Rome what exactly happened at the Madrid Open.
"I feel now perfect, and I spent two and a half days in the hospital. I had a tonsil abcess. I mean, it was crazy because one day I wake up with my throat double bigger than it should be. It's tough to breathe because you have less space. And then it started to be all this. Not poison, how do you call this?"
"When you have an infection but like a bad color, so my throat was in an ugly color. And the smell from my mouth, you cannot imagine how horrible it was. I could not take it, and then after the final, I started feeling worse."
After going into the hospital, Rublev started to feel better, and now he feels good enough to play. That's great to hear, and it's quite remarkable that he won an ATP Masters 1000 event dealing with such illness.
"I mean, during older tournaments, I was only feeling worse, worse and worse, and then as soon as I finished the final, early morning went to the hospital. When they did a couple of checks, they check my body and when the doctor did one test or something, he's like, 'Okay, it's an emergency.'"
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