Andrey Rublev & Alexei Popyrin React To 2024 Montreal Final 🗣️

First of all, congratulations Alexey. You came to this tournament as world number 62 and you beat five top 20 players in a row, three top 10s to get your first Masters 1000 title. How does it feel now? Yeah, it feels unbelievable. You know, I kept saying all week the hard work that I've put in over these last few years feels like it's paid off somewhat this week. You know, I played a really, really high level of tennis which I believed that I could play my whole life but to put it into five matches in a row against, I mean six matches in a row against really high quality opponents is something else and I'm just really proud of myself and my team. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the press conference of Andre Rublev. First of all, not the result you were hoping for Andre for tonight but still hopefully a very positive week for you here in Montreal. Yeah, of course it's a very positive and really good week, really big step forward I think and I feel proud of myself that I was able to be really good all the week mentally and even today because if you took me back a couple of months ago or even one ago if I would or even compare my match against him at the Monte Carlo when I was losing I was behaving 10 times more and it was first round and here there was a final much more pressure and yes I still showed a bit emotions today but compare the matches when I was losing the same way I think I did much better job and that's why I had a little chance in the second set but it was just not my time I guess. I was not ready to use that chance and that's it. Hi Alexis, congratulations for the win. Thank you. You were playing your first Masters 1000 final, you were facing a guy who was playing pretty well, number six in the world this morning. How did you feel right off the bat? Right off the bat? Yeah. Yeah I felt pretty calm to be honest. For me what I work for is to play in matches like this and there's no point in going out there nervous or scared of the occasion when you've worked your whole life to play matches like this and for me I really enjoy playing big matches, I really enjoy playing finals and semi-finals and big tournaments in front of a big crowd on a big court and for me that's where I feel like I play my best tennis and you know I came out there I wanted to put a statement in the first game and I think I did that which I think rattled him a little bit which was part of the game plan and you know I just continued from there. Hi, what makes the difference for you tonight? Tonight? Alexis first of all played unbelievable tennis and I was not serving well and of course when I was not serving well and I start not good you start to feel too many thoughts in your head and he was playing even more confidence everything all the important moments he played really well and then when I was able to calm myself down and just play tennis I was losing with a break in a second and I was able to come back and there I had a chance I had a moment but I wasn't ready and that's it he played I didn't play well again that game I did mistakes and he broke me straight away so that's I would say that's the difference between really top players because when they are struggling and finally they they they're able to turn a bit to the equal score they're using that chances and I couldn't that's it very simple. Congratulations on the on the victory on the title everything you touched tonight turned to gold was it one of your best matches in in your career? Yeah I would say so I would say it's probably one of the best matches I've played in my life I think it's it's not a level that I haven't seen myself produce in practice or in an occasional match here and there but considering the occasion considering what we were playing for I think with the level that I played it probably is the best match that I played in my life and but for me I'm not kind of most proud about how I played in this final it's more how I played throughout the whole week the level that I produced the whole week to to play these top guys and to and to beat all and to beat them with the level of tennis that I showed was was really a testament to everything. Andre you certainly didn't have the start of the match you wanted you lost the first seven points and then you lost the first two games and from up here when we were watching it looked like you became impatient quite quickly it was could you describe exactly what was going through your mind? Yeah like I said when all the matches you were playing well or something you were yeah starting the matches well and stuff like that and suddenly you start with two mistakes two double faults I mean which is normally it's a final you can be nervous but still like very obvious mistakes and then the next games you see that he's serving really hard really well playing well and it's like you start to have too much thoughts so it's like I need to if I don't start to do something to to raise my level it's gonna be over very fast so it took me yeah it took me one set I had a little chance in the first set to come back break points but he he played them unbelievable he make aces and and that's it the first set was done and then I was able to calm myself down when I went to the bathroom and that's why like I said I had little chance when I brought him back at 3-2 when he went a bit more down and I started to feel like okay I'm here back I'm now more pumped but then as soon as the and that was the difference hi Alexei congratulations thank you will your girlfriend ever forget you forgive you for yeah but I didn't really mean it in a way that I don't want her to travel I kind of meant it in a way that you know I hope I hope she will come you know it's her decision so I didn't mean it in a way that uh kind of meant it like she wants me to win so much that hopefully she doesn't think that her not being there is a is a charm but for me you know I I told her um when I got off the court I called her straight away and I said like you know for me she knows it already um she knows that I wouldn't be here without her um she's you know she's been through the the dips and the and the bottom of the and the lows of the lows with me um she's seen me like having my worst career in my in my having my worst year in my career and and she was there for me and she really helped me come out of it and uh you know she knows that I wouldn't be here without her I don't want to take away anything from your opponent but uh it's pretty clear and I think in your analysis also that uh you didn't play tennis that you played the last three or four matches do you agree with this and is this just a problem of confidence uh yes I agree with that of course problem of confidence still problem of uh I would say emotions to put them in the right way I think I did huge mental emotional improvement but still those things now I need to to take a good lesson to I know the I know which lesson I need to take from from this match and just to keep moving I've been doing uh since I start yeah since I start to be more clear in my head since Bostadt every week I'm doing better and better this week no one expect that I will arrive to the final and we did it so I'm uh I'm back in a good position in in terms of ranking so just I want to focus keep improving all the now mistakes that I'm doing we just need to take right lesson and keep going because in the I mean if you ask me to to play final every week and to lose I will also I prefer to to play final every week and to lose them to play one final in a in a while can you explain yesterday we were talking about private jet what what is this exactly can you describe what can you explain yes so basically when when uh well I was told at on the quarter finals by my coach that if you make finals um the tournament provides a private jet to Cincinnati and uh just before the semi-finals we were like let's go out and get that private jet and I've never been on a private jet before in my life so it'll be a first for me um tomorrow morning and yeah I've I'm honestly really scared of planes I'm scared of flying so we'll see how I go on such a small plane but yeah I play Wednesday you play Wednesday I should I should play Wednesday yeah I think thank you I've been told I play Wednesday Andre if you're able to get us to the emotion of the overall week it was kind of a weird week with the rain delays and the multiple games if you're able to just get us to through your week my week what can I say I'm like I said just now I feel proud I feel happy of course you always want to win it's normal feeling for for the tennis but from the other side we cannot win every week every week we have to lose and to lose in the final it's a it's a also nice achievement and I think the most important is the way you lose if you if you accept the things and if you are ready to learn it's kind of a can give you a huge jump in front so I will just focus now to take a really good lesson the week been amazing for me for my tennis for my improvement for my ranking so just yeah take a lesson make it as a make it of to make of this lesson improvement and be ready for the most important tournament is US Open so to get ready as best shape and best mental part as possible and I still have one more tournament Cincinnati so I will go there free just to play tennis we'll see how it goes I don't have much time to adapt but we always see stuff tournament tough draw so I just go there I will have just I will try to enjoy and we'll see what's gonna happen if I tried just to enjoy next week you had an amazing junior career you were ranked pretty high and now you're 25 winning that big tournament so I was wondering did you expect back then that it would take that long to achieve that level of success and can you go back to where you were and what you had to go through in the last maybe five six years well when I was a junior you know you come off winning French Open number two in the world juniors you kind of think okay you're bound to you're bound to succeed you're bound to go to the top quickly you know and I saw you know Canadians do it Felix do it I saw a lot of players that I kind of grew up in juniors who kind of took the next step really quickly and for me it didn't really come that way you know I was a little bit later than all of them even finished my junior career a little bit later than all of them and you know but when you do win that when you do win that slam in juniors you kind of think okay now the next step is going to be easy but it's far from that you know to to break you know the top 500 is is really hard to break the top 250 is really hard and to break the top 100 is a is another level and then to stay in the top 100 is even harder than that and then to break the top 50 is even harder than that so it's like it's so many steps that you kind of don't look at as a junior that you have to kind of proceed and then once I did do that in 2021 I think that's what you're referring to I broke the I won my first adb title I broke the top 60 you know I was only 21 years old and you know I thought okay there's no chance I'm gonna kind of drop out of the rankings and then I'm just gonna continue building from there but the next year I kind of lost all my points basically won three matches on tour dropped outside the top 120 finished the finished the 2022 outside the top 120 had to get a wildcard into Australian Open and yeah and then from then it was kind of like just building blocks step by step getting back to where we wanted to get to and that that was last year which was a really big year for me you know winning the clay court title and then you know playing some good masters tournaments here and there and you know solidify my spot back inside the top 50 and then this year honestly it's been kind of up and down for me up until this week obviously it's been really like up and down I you know I was started the year at 38 I think in the world and this week I was 62 so I didn't really defend all my points and you know there was a risk of me kind of falling outside again because I had big points to defend next week in Cincinnati I made quarterfinals last year so kind of like all of these thoughts kind of are in your head all the time and you have to find a way to kind of block it out all the time and and that's what I did really well this week any more questions on the floor okay one more hi congrats you're the first Australian to win a master since Leighton Ewitt in 2003 what does that mean to you yeah it means a lot it's it's an unbelievable feeling and you know straight after the match point I kind of like couldn't believe what just happened you know when I saw Leighton he was actually with me at the Olympics last week and he helped me so much in the Olympics and he's helped me so much throughout my career and to you know he gave me some good advice after my my match against Zverev at the Olympics he said like you took one of the best players in the world one of the more informed players in the world to kind of you know play some unbelievable tennis to beat you and you know I was a break up in that match so serving for the set and kind of choked it so he's he kind of flipped the flip the switch on it and it's kind of told me a positive overlook on that match and then you know gave me the confidence coming into this week so yeah a lot of it is to him and and yeah it's a great feeling