Andrey Rublev, among the younger crop of players living in the shadows of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, reckons this could be the year when the stranglehold of the ‘Big Three’ on the Grand Slams is broken.
The Russian World No. 23, who is the second seed at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open and has been given a first round bye, was having his first interaction with the media on the opening day of the Qatar ExxonMobil Open.
“The top guys are still good, they will still win some big tournaments, but the new generation is coming. There are so many young players now. For sure, if you ask me now is the best moment for the young guys to win the Grand Slams and other big tournaments,” Rublev said.
Rublev cited last year’s example when several young players made a mark on the big stage, even though they couldn’t prevent Nadal and Djokovic from sharing the four majors equally.
“In London last year (at the ATP Masters Finals), three of the four semi-finalists were young (Dominic Thiem, Alexander Zverev and Stefanos Tsitsipas), except Roger Federer.”
Eventually Tsitsipas won the year-ending event beating Thiem in the final, having gotten the better of Federer in the semi-finals.
Rublev himself served notice that he is also a Grand Slam contender with three victories against top-10 players last year, beating World No. 4 Thiem in Hamburg, and Federer in Cincinnati, handing the Swiss great his fastest defeat in 16 years.
Victories over Tsitsipas in the first round of the US Open and Australian Nick Kyrgios in the third saw his stocks and ranking soar after an injury-ridden 2018 which saw him slip to 105 in the world.
But the Russian, who is making his third trip to Doha in as many years, having finished runner-up to Frenchman Gael Monfils in 2018, has learnt from his experience, saying he is much more at ease now.
“I am focusing more on my tennis now, I am more relaxed because I have less expectations. I have learnt to accept things as they come. There is little stress now.”
But despite his new-found equanimity, he couldn’t resist himself from registering his complaint over missing the ATP Cup in Australia where he is not part of the Russian team which is being represented by Daniil Medvedev (World No. 5), Karen Khachanov (World No. 17) and Teymuraz Gabashvili (World No. 270)
He said it was “unfair” that as World No. 23 he couldn’t get to play in the tournament when some players with a “ranking of 1000 or 1,500” are representing their countries.
“Not fair for a guy in the top 50 to be missing out on the chance of making some money and points,” said Rublev, asking the ATP to look into this.
Does he consider himself among the favourites in Doha?
“I never like to think that way. So many players have the chance to win the title. I am going to compete as good as I can. I am just one of them. I don’t talk about such things,” said Rublev, who will be on the hunt for only his third title on the ATP Tour.
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