"If you want to win, shut up" - Rublev on his struggle with his temper

| by Drew Tate

Andrey Rublev has been struggling with his temper for a very long time and it's been quite bad at Roland Garros.

The Russian shocked the world by recklessly slamming a ball that almost hit a court sweeper in round one and in each of the following matches he allowed his temper to derail his matches. Rublev apologized and admitted he needs to work on it in order to improve but it's been a struggle. Despite beating Garin in four sets, he allowed himself to get angry in the match losing focus and dropping a set.

Speaking on it, after the match, he said:

“Just shut up if you want to win. Because if you keep getting frustrated, I don't know, like with (Federico) Delbonis in the end of the second set (in the second round), Kwon (Soon-woo) after the first set (in the first round) or like even today against Cristian after the second set, I have no chance to beat these guys. So it's your choice. You want to win? Shut up. If you want to lose, keep going.”

"Juan Carlos...he always told me to do that" - Alcaraz almost admits to mid-match coaching at Roland Garros
"Juan Carlos...he always told me to do that" - Alcaraz almost admits to mid-match coaching at Roland Garros

Asked about it his tennis, Rublev said:

“There were still up and downs. Some moments I played well, some moments I drop the level and Cristian, some moments were also a bit more down, but in some moments he was playing really, really high level. And that's it, it was more about these details. Who was more focused, who was more consistent.”

He once again explained that for him it's asbout controling his emotions:

“Again, I think (it’s about) emotions. When I'm more calm, I start playing much better, start to play much more free and straightaway the ball goes double faster, I play smarter. So it's more about this. The problem is, yeah, there are some moments that when I'm doing this really well for some amount of time, then it can be that I drop this mood and then I start to play a bit different. So I need to have more consistency in this.”

"Toni is my uncle. I don't think he'll want me to lose but he's professional" - Nadal on facing uncle Toni
"Toni is my uncle. I don't think he'll want me to lose but he's professional" - Nadal on facing uncle Toni

Read the full article

Just in

Look at more articles