Breaking right down to construct once more: Andrey Rublev’s bid to reinvent himself

Andrey Rublev has spent a lot of his profession attempting to get higher at being Andrey Rublev. Now, the mercurial Russian, whose on-court meltdowns are virtually as nicely chronicled as his title wins, is trying to rewrite the script that took him to global community No. 5. At 28, he’s attempting to turn into a unique participant.Rublev has slipped to No. 23, falling exterior the highest 20 for the primary time since January 2020 six weeks in the past. For a participant who completed inside the highest 10 between 2020 and 2024, for 5 consecutive seasons, and reached 10 Grand Slam quarter-finals, the decline is putting. Yet, after 36 main-draw appearances on the majors with out advancing past the final eight, Rublev has come to a realisation, to construct one thing new, he should first be prepared to interrupt down what acquired him right here.“It’s not simple to alter one thing that you understand for all of your life,” mentioned Rublev, the No.4 seed on the Almaty Open, an ATP 250 occasion. “It’s not simple to change that, what introduced you to No.5 within the global community for one thing else that you do not actually belief but.”The forehand, Rublev’s greatest weapon, is a helpful instance. It’s a shot he may flip to beneath strain virtually with out considering. But the instincts that after served him so nicely may turn into constraints when he’s attempting to increase his sport.“I’m attempting to alter, on and off the court docket, mentally, issues which have turn into a behavior, which have already taken me to the restrict, with what I may do with that,” he says, eyes fastened on the desk earlier than him. “Now, it is the second a part of (my) profession the place I attempt to do one thing completely different utterly.”There is not any assure the experiment will work. Rublev is aware of that in addition to anybody.“Maybe it is going to make the second a part of my profession higher than my first half, or possibly not,” he says, lifting his gaze and searching straight on the interviewer. “But at the least I do know I did one thing, I gave myself an opportunity.”“With the sport I used to have, it’s going to go down little by little till I can’t play anymore,” he says. “To be simply high 30 for the following five-six years, for me, it makes no distinction.”For the previous 18 months, Rublev has been working with former global community No. 1 Marat Safin, a partnership that pushed the 28-year-old to deal with psychological and emotional struggles that has seen him hurt himself bodily on the court docket.Asked what has modified most since working with Safin, Rublev doesn’t start with techniques or outcomes.“I’m having fun with far more the life. I’m far more in peace with myself,” he says.It is a putting reply from a participant whose depth has lengthy been one of many defining options of his tennis.“From the previous, earlier than Marat, I used to be very depressed,” he says. “Taking … antidepressant capsules to do not feel despair.”He pauses, taking a deep breath, earlier than describing how low he had felt.“Basically, it was a little bit of drama that was occurring to me, and I did not know tips on how to escape. I used to be on the backside of my darkest days.”It was there, he says, that he reached a degree at which he may now not proceed as he had been. He confronted a alternative — to stay trapped in the identical patterns or to attempt, lastly, to do one thing about them.“I select to attempt to repair it,” he mentioned.Rublev is just not in need of reminders that reinvention is feasible.“When you see gamers like Sasha (Zverev) or Daniil (Medvedev), after they’re doing one thing good, it offers a transparent sign that I can do it as nicely,” he says. “Because I do know what I’m able to. If he can do it, I can discover a means as nicely.”