The Masters 1000 in Cincinnati in 2019 was a turning point in Andrey Rublev’s career. It is indeed difficult to forget a victory against Roger Federer, then world No. 3 (6-3, 6-4), in qualifying, despite a subsequent defeat in the quarter-finals against Daniil Medvedev. (6-2, 6-3).
But when of a discussion on the sidelines of the UTSRublev revealed that this great adventure almost never saw the light of day because he came close to not even being able to play in the tournament.
Rublev, 70th player in the world at the time, had simply forgotten to register and had to, as a last resort, put his name on the list of substitutes for qualifying. To complicate matters, he was in Montreal playing doubles with Alexander Zverev. All of this greatly endangered his participation in the Masters 1000 in Cincinnati.
Rublev: “Everyone told me I had no chance of getting into the picture
“If we had won that match, then I wouldn’t have been able to sign even as a substitute,” Rublev said. “Everyone told me that I had no chance of getting into the squad anyway because he was much too strong and there would be no room for a replacement. I checked previous years and indeed that was the case.”
“I was told to give everything in double. In the end, we played our best but we still lost. So I said to myself: it’s over for doubles and it’s going to be over for singles. But I got that substitute spot, then came out of qualifying and beat Roger.”
This week proved decisive for Rublev, with victories in qualifying over Bernard Tomic (88th) and Mikhail Kukushkin (46th), then in the main draw against Nikoloz Basilashvili (17th), Stan Wawrinka (23rd) and therefore Federer.
2023-10-27 16:07:16
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