Andrey Rublev responded to Nick Kyrgios’ offer after the Australian said he would fly out to his rival and help him with his mental game. The Russian was involved in a worrying on-court meltdown at the ATP Finals where he smashed his knee with his racket six times, drawing blood. After watching back footage of his outburst, Rublev confessed that it was “embarrassing”.
Rublev enjoyed the best season of his career so far in 2023, highlighted by his maiden Masters 1000 title win in Monte Carlo. The world No 5 also picked up the title in Bastad and reached four other finals, including at the Shanghai Masters. But his year ended on a sour note when he crashed out of the ATP Finals with a 0-3 record in the group stage.
One moment from the season-ending championships stood out in particular when Rublev smashed up his knee with his racket during his defeat to Carlos Alcaraz in the second round-robin match. The meltdown was so concerning that Kyrgios offered to help the 26-year-old work on his mentality ahead of the 2024 season.
Rublev how now responded to the Australian’s proposal, revealing that he enjoyed Kyrgios’ comments. “I saw. Of course,” the 10-time title winner said when asked whether he’d want to accept the offer. “That was fun, he made me smile.”
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Kyrgios is currently sidelined due to ongoing injuries and has played just one match in the last year. He recently withdrew from the upcoming Australian Open and Rublev would rather see the former No 13 back on court instead of in his coaching camp. The Russian continued: “Nick is first of all a very talented player, one of the most talented.
“A player that tennis needs, so I can say only that we need him back because he brings a lot of fun to tennis and he made me smile with this comment.” Rublev also reflected on his eruption in Turin, admitting that it was difficult to watch back footage of the incident.
“It looks embarrassing, it looks very bad and for me it’s tough to see this as well,” the 26-year-old confessed. “But I mean everyone fails and I guess that week was my week when I couldn’t manage emotions and I couldn’t manage stress that I was having and that’s it.”
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Although Kyrgios could offer some help with Rublev’s mental game, the world No 5 is already doing that himself. “First of all you try to do it daily,” he explained, detailing how he worked on that aspect.
“Daily things because in life there is many things that are stressing us out or making us very angry and you can practice those things there to be calm when you want to explode. Then obviously my coach with psychology lessons.”
It comes after Kyrgios told Rublev to be “nicer to himself” while he was working as a Tennis Channel pundit during the ATP Finals. Following the 26-year-old’s outburst, the Australian said: “I think he’s made three quarter-finals this year in the Grand Slams so I think moving into Australia he’s got to be in a good mindset moving forward. I mean, I’ll come fly to wherever he is and try to help him out mentally. I think I’ve got that down.”
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