Rublev keeps his focus on the players still on court
Arriving in Nîmes as one of the most anticipated names at UTS, Andrey Rublev once again showed why he is not exactly built for polite, prepackaged interviews. The Moscow-born player, relaxed and disarmingly direct, was asked which champion from the past he would most like to face. His answer was not especially sentimental.
"Honestly, I don't have an answer, I don't care. Whoever you give me, I face them... if I don't have to play, even better," he said, laughing.
That sort of bluntness fits Rublev. He was not in the mood for tennis nostalgia, and he did not pretend otherwise. Instead, he drew a line between the game’s past and its present, with the present getting most of his attention.
With his 29th birthday only a few months away, Rublev also reflected on the sport's current top tier, where Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz have become the leading references for the next generation. Rather than treating their rise as a problem, he framed it as encouragement.
"They always play tennis. Their rise gives me hope..."
It is a neat summary of Rublev’s view: the sport keeps moving, the standards keep rising, and the players at the top are not standing still long enough for anyone else to get comfortable. For him, that is not a complaint. It is simply the reality of modern tennis, which, inconveniently enough, does not wait for anyone.
In Nîmes, Rublev came across as relaxed, candid and more interested in the players shaping the game now than in building monuments to those who came before. The message was pretty clear. The past can stay in the past. The real work, as ever, is happening on court.
