Andrey Rublev has admitted that it “looks really ugly” when he shows his emotions on the court after getting frustrated during his Shanghai Masters semi-final win. The fifth seed said he wanted to “destroy” a drone that had been disturbing him throughout the first set. He still managed to reach the final with a 7-6(7) 6-3 victory over Grigor Dimitrov.
Rublev is bidding to lift a Masters 1000 trophy for the second time in his career as he takes on Hubert Hurkacz on Sunday. But the 25-year-old will want to avoid his usual on-court antics as he is known for unleashing his anger towards himself, often screaming or breaking rackets when he is frustrated.
The Russian was asked whether it helped to unleash his emotions on the court but he quickly rejected the idea, claiming it looked “really ugly” when he got angry during a match. “No, not at all. Opposite. It’s not helping me at all,” he responded.
“I’m trying to take it away, you know, to don’t do those things, because it’s not helping me, and it looks really ugly.” And Rublev admitted that his victory over Dimitrov had been one of the tougher matches despite getting it done in straight sets.
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He added: “But, yeah, some matches it’s a bit easier, and some matches like today when you feel more stress, unfortunately, more pressure, like semi-final, you want to win, and you have more emotions, so it’s tougher to control. Sometimes it’s happy, some things like happen today that is really not nice to see, but I’m working, and I’m trying to take them away.”
The world No 7 also aired his grievances with another issue during the match as a nearby drone was distracting him. Rublev could be heard speaking to the umpire about an issue throughout the opening set but he tried to take action while serving to stay in it at 4-5.
“Can they please take out the drone?” the 25-year-old asked umpire Nacho Forcadell. “I did what I can do,” the chair official replied – but it wasn’t enough for Rublev. He added: “But who is controlling [it]? Get me something to destroy it.”
