Despite enjoying arguably his best season yet – winning his first Masters title in Monte Carlo – it was a disappointing end to the year for Rublev at the ATP Finals as he failed to win a match. But it wasn’t his results that became the story in Turin, as one of his meltdowns sparked concern.
The 26-year-old imploded while facing Carlos Alcaraz in his second match – a must-win to avoid elimination in the group stage. Already a set down, tempers flared when Rublev went a break down in the second. He slammed his racket into his leg six times and could be seen bleeding as he sat down for the changeover.
Rublev has now addressed the incident and his tendency to direct his anger towards himself on the match court, explaining that he didn’t want to hit the court. “Why knees? There are two reasons for this. Firstly, because of the rackets,” the 14-time title winner told Championat.
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“I’m very selective – it’s hard for me to find rackets that I like. Even if they are the same, out of 15 rackets only two or three will suit me. Because of this, I feel sorry for hitting them on the court again, because if they break, then I have to look for them again. And that can take a long time, so I hit the knees and not the court.”
However, Rublev confessed that he also hit himself out of resentment and to change something in the match. He continued: “Secondly, sometimes I have such strong resentment towards myself that I no longer know what else to do to give myself a sign that it’s time to wake up. At such moments, I kind of try to tell myself, ‘Wake up! Half the match has already passed and you haven’t done anything.’
“All this leads to this outburst of anger. And immediately after this outburst I feel guilty because I am again stepping on the same racket. Because all these crazy people are not needed at all, they don’t help me in any way, I understand that. But at the moment I just don’t know what else to do to reach myself.”
While Rublev is still struggling to control his emotions, he at least knows where the anger comes from. “I just really want to win, to show a good result. But, unfortunately, sometimes this results in aggression,” he explained.
As for some of his other on-court outbursts, which have sometimes seen him shout that he doesn’t want to play anymore, Rublev put it down to being immature in the heat of the moment. He added: “Oh, this is childish stupidity based on emotions. It is clear that such thoughts do not exist in reality. Just stupid childish behaviour.”
