“I feel happy and relieved. In these two weeks I couldn’t have done anything better.” Andrey Rublev wants to be clear, after the match: after beating Felix Auger-Aliassime to win the Madrid 1000 title, the Russian emphasizes the turning point that this tournament represents for his season.
“I think that at 4-1 in favor of my opponent – continues ‘Rublo’ – I started to feel a little better, thinking I could start pushing further. I kind of relaxed a little. Also, I’m starting to feel good physically. Little by little, I started playing a little better. Then from the second set onwards it was a crescendo, even if it wasn’t easy.”
Even Rublev, despite his success, had to deal with some physical problems. “They gave me a kind of anesthesia on my feet, because the toes become inflamed and start to swell, causing strong pressure on the bone. When you have this kind of sensation, you can’t even put your feet inside the shoe. The sensation is similar to when your foot is broken, I imagine. That’s why they gave me this kind of anesthesia, so I wouldn’t feel it. Like I said, at least I could play without thinking.”
But there’s more. “It’s not like he’s healed with the victory. I’m still sick and tomorrow (today, ed.) I think I’ll go to hospital for a complete check-up. I don’t know exactly what’s happening, because I’ve been sick for eight, nine days already and this is not normal for me. Throughout my life, if I ever felt unwell, it was for two or three days at most. Maybe a fever, but nothing special. This time is the first time I’ve felt this way. We don’t know yet if it’s some virus or something, but the throat is completely blocked. For nine days I had trouble swallowing, I struggled to eat and I have a bad headache from it all. For the two or three hours of the match, painkillers help. Inside me at the moment I’m full of medicine (smiles, ed.)”.
Returning to tennis, the Russian has given a clear turning point to a season that was proceeding in anonymity. “I do not know. How can I explain it? I guess I was in the mood. I’m really happy. I’m really happy that I was able to play well in all the matches. I think I showed an excellent level of tennis from the first match in Madrid. In the end I managed to win a title. And now it seems that everything is new, that those bad tournaments never took place. Now I think the most important thing is to try to recover and be one hundred percent ready for Rome.”
But are these ups and downs something Andrey will have to get used to, throughout his career? “No, I mean, I don’t know. I try not to think that way, because I think it’s normal to have ups and downs, because this season I started really well and I was playing very well. Then somehow I started playing a little worse, so for a couple of weeks I couldn’t win a game. I think it’s normal to have ups and downs and everyone goes through these moments. For me the task was just to keep working, keep trying to improve, because in a moment everything can change. The season is long and we have many opportunities. Ultimately, for me, it happened here. Now it seems that the clay season was so good for me, even though in the previous two tournaments I had lost in the first round (smiles, ed.)”.
