Andrey Rublev was truly the most valuable player of The Falcons team after he produced another epic comeback to win the 2024 World Tennis League.
Already in the first tie of the exhibition team tournament in Abu Dhabi, Rublev had to put together a heroic performance to save his team from a loss against The Hawks.
He first beat Jordan Thompson 7-5, then won two games in the overtime, and then also won the match tie-break 10-6 to completely turn around the tie and win it for his team.
In the second tie that The Falcons played, the team built a one-game lead for Rublev, so his 6-4 win over Nick Kyrgios was enough to secure the second win at the event for the team.
However, against The Eagles, Rublev's team was down 9-18 when he took to the court for his singles match, and even though he beat Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-1, he couldn't win four consecutive games in overtime to force a match tie-break.
Still, his efforts throughout the group stage were enough to send The Falcons to the final of the competition, and the tournament ended with the same tie that it started with, as they took on The Hawks.
In the women's matches, The Hawks were the better team again. They won the doubles match 7-6 again, but this time, they created an even larger gap thanks to Mirra Andreeva's dominant performance in the singles.
The 17-year-old phenom bested Elena Rybakina 6-2, which meant The Hawks led 13-8 after two matches played. Then, men took to the court to decide the tie.
First, Denis Shapovalov teamed up with Andrey Rublev to take on Sumit Nagal and Jordan Thompson, and the Canadian-Russian pairing was much better.
They erased almost the whole advantage that The Hawks had, winning the match 6-2, which meant that Rublev entered the last singles match with only a one-game deficit, with the opposing team leading 15-14.
The last time he played a singles match against The Hawks player, Thompson was his opponent, but after the Australian's triple loss against Rublev, Nagal took to the court instead.
That, however, wasn't a good decision. Rublev destroyed Nagal, beating him 6-1 to secure the win for The Falcons, who beat The Hawks 20-16, winning the 2024 World Tennis League.
Although clearly happy about the win, Rublev was also brutally honest during the post-match interview when asked whether it was the moment he played tennis for.
"I don't know what to say, nothing was going through my head. I got an opportunity to play singles, and I knew all I needed to do was win the set."
"To be honest, not for these moments I play tennis. I play tennis to play at the main tournaments. It's still nice feeling, I did my best, I tried, and we were able to win, so that's the most important thing."
Rublev also didn't provide the desired answer when talking about his team, as he revealed that they haven't spent any time together outside of the matches.
"There is no behind-the-scenes because we didn't spend even one minute together outside of the bench. But I know the guys very well. I've known Denis since juniors; we played many matches; Elena and Caroline are super-nice girls; all of them are amazing players."