Andrey Rublev "I'm Proud of Myself...🙈"丨Wimbledon 2023

Welcome to the press conference for Andrey Rublev. Please raise your hand and state your name and organisation when asking your question. Andrey, we'll just start a battle out there, but good to come through. Obviously, it was really good to come through to win a really tough match, especially Sasha beat me the last time just a week ago in the final in Khali. He was playing unbelievable, the way he served, the way he broke your rhythm. It's tough to do something because he makes you go for the shot 50-50. On top of that, when he makes good serve and good couple of returns, in the end, on grass, the match is done. I was really happy that today, when he was shooting really hard, I was able to be focused, to manage to bring the balls back. In the end, we had a drama match, but I was able to win it and I'm really happy. You said on the court that you knew you had a lot of chances and so you kept on thinking that you'd get another one. Just curious, how satisfied were you that in a drama match, you were able to think that clearly and know that another chance might come? It's like I said, the last time he beat me. I knew that on grass, he had really good chances to beat me, especially the way he served, the way he's playing. When we started to play today, during the match, I started to feel that at least I need to give my best and we'll see what's going to happen. Then I started to feel that I'm playing well, somehow I win a set. I think I broke him in the middle of the second set, so it was two sets to up. I had some games that was, I think it was 4-0 and 30-40 in the second serve, so it was a break point for me and I didn't make that return. Then the tiebreak, I missed one easy forehand at 3-0 and then the set point forehand that I get tight and I didn't really cover down the line that he make a passing. So these kind of shots and also the fourth set I had too much points where he played really well. So that's why I was saying to myself, okay, I break him first set, I break him second set, I had break points third and fourth set. So at least keep playing the same way, at least you should have at least one chance. Then I think it was 3-0, I had the only one break point and I was able to return really well and to play aggressive points. Have you had a chance to look at the video of the next to last point? Yes, I saw it already. What were your thoughts as you watched the replay and what feeling did it give you? I don't know, the feeling that at least I have one amazing point in my career. But the feeling is that obviously all my life I didn't know how to dive and I was a couple of times in the past years I was thinking, okay, now I'm grass, at least try on practice or try without the ball just to do it and I couldn't. I was too scared and then on a match against GoFan, I don't know, somehow it comes natural and I did a real dive. And then today was this one, I don't know, one leg dive or something, how you can call it. But I don't know how I make it, because I didn't even see the ball, I didn't even see how I hit it and I didn't even see how it went. I realized it after when the people started to scream and I see the face of Sasha and then I realized that I make it somehow. The interviewer called it maybe something we'll never see the likes of ever. What feeling do you have when she described it? What feeling did you have when she described it? Yeah, I mean, an amazing feeling. And obviously, I don't know if I will ever feel this feeling also, because at this score, final set, being on center court at Wimbledon in front of all the crowd, at this tight score, at the end of the match to make this shot, I don't know how many times in life you will have those moments. And this moment for sure is one of the highlights of my life. I was going to ask basically exactly the same question. Did Sasha say anything at the end about that shot? I think he said something, but I had too much emotions in my head that I didn't remember what he said. But for sure, he said something about the shot in general, about the match. And yeah, it was nice. I mean, it was a very, very respectful, how we say, handshake. Very respectful. And yeah, like he was saying also in Holly, we know each other since we almost started to play tennis. So it's been a long, long journey. And I guess when Sasha is more serious and he's more focused, we can see which level of tennis he can bring. So and he showed the last, I don't know, two and a half weeks that he can be a really, really great player. Hello, Andrey. I'm with RFM. I wanted to ask you, last year, you missed Wimbledon. This year, you're performing really well. Are you experiencing, sorry, a sort of a personal redemption as well? What do you mean personal redemption? I mean, like that you maybe you missed the chance last year. And this year, I mean, you are performing well. And you could do that, I mean, last year as well. I mean, in general, I have a strange history with Wimbledon because I was injured a couple of times and I didn't play. So I played the last, ah, the story was like this. I didn't play 18 because I had an injury. I played 19. I didn't play 20 because of pandemic. I played 21. I didn't play last year because of the ban. And this year I played. So the last, since 2018, I never played two years in a row. And I mean, I'm just happy that finally I'm able to play here. Finally, I did my first quarterfinal here. And finally, I'm able to play all the season for the moment, nonstop, because I never had yet from January till the end of the season that I played full season. Never. Because of injuries or because of pandemic or because like last year, because they ban us. So I hope this will be the first ever year that I play full season. Andrey, you're well known for your emotions. Is it easier on center court in Wimbledon to stay calm because it's so historic, so many traditions? I don't know. I mean, I want to say it's easier, but also I know myself and doesn't matter if it's center court or not. Sometimes I can explode. And but yeah, I hope I hope the I think it's my first quarterfinal that I feel the most proud of myself, the way I was dealing with everything. Andrey, slightly different topic. Asking a few players, if you could change one thing about tennis, what would you change? I don't know. No, I don't want to say that. I would keep everything the same. You're going to say. You can't tease it. I wanted to put a coin, but all the high players will kill me to say one serve. But no, no. The only thing I would change about tennis is to don't change anything, especially the rules. Andrey, you have your own clothing line. I'm curious what you've learned about having a clothing line that you didn't know before you decided to do it. What I learned for the moment, I didn't learn anything for the moment. I learned that I spent a lot of money, but we'll see. Hopefully, like I was saying, we're finishing the last steps before the launch. So hopefully everything will go good and we'll see how it's going to be. Yes. One more, if you could preview the two different possibilities that you face. Now that we know what your thoughts are about your next match. What to say about the next match, if it's Novak. Novak is one of the best players on grass, the player who last couple of years didn't even almost doesn't even lose on grass. So in my case, nothing to say, just to go there and to try to fight and to do as best as I can my job. And if it's Hubi, I mean, we play a couple of times and we have tough, really tough matches. He beat me some matches. I beat him a couple of matches. But again, he is a perfect player for grass. He has a huge, huge, huge serve and he likes to go for the shots. He likes to go for returns. So I mean, on grass, I think it's really, really tough to play against him on grass. So we'll see. Just one follow up, if it is Novak. I'm sorry I messed up the question before. To what degree do you try to block history out of your mind when you play him? Or do you try to put it in your mind that you are playing against a guy at this place in history? To be honest, I'm not really thinking about it because this is his history. He knows that he is one of the best players, especially at this place, at this court. So why I need to think about his achievement? Me, I have to think about myself and to try to do my best. So it's like, I don't know, if Novak starts to think that I lost all my quarterfinals and he starts to think about it, you know, like that, OK, Andrey, he lost all the quarterfinals and now we play against quarterfinals. So how is it going to be? So it's the same. This last one, Andrey, what do you think is the hardest thing about playing Novak Djokovic? That he's one of the best and he doesn't really lose this year, especially in slams. All the slams that he played, he won. So that's the toughest things. Game or mental strength, if there was one. Oh, the game. I mean, the thing is, he has perfect game because he really, really has really good legs and he really knows how to use the speed of the players. So sometimes as hard as you play to him, it's more comfortable also for him because he, with his legs, he's using your speed and he's playing without mistakes. So in the end, he's forcing you to go for extra shots and you're missing. And then he serves really, really good. He serves all directions, close to the lines with a very high first serve percentage. So it's like, it's tough to break him. And then you have the guy who returns almost everything with amazing legs. So you have to play really, really great match. Good luck. Thank you very much.