Andrey Rublev: ‘I don’t feel any more that crazy anxiety and stress’
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Russian world No 9 has become as well-known for hurting himself on court as for his tennis but feels he has turned a corner. ‘I’m definitely feeling much better,” Andrey Rublev says as, with disarming honesty, he offers fresh insight into his long struggle with depression and physically hurting himself on court. “I’m still not in a place where I would like to be but, finally, I have a base. I have something to step on because, half a year ago, I arrived at the worst moment of my life in terms of how I feel about myself.”.
![[Donald McRae]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2018/01/15/Donald_McRae,_L.png?width=75&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
We are talking just days away from the Australian Open and Rublev, the No 9 seed who has reached the quarter-finals in three out of the past four years in Melbourne, is charming, interesting and just a little tortured as he tries to understand the reasons for his psychological complexities in a manner as friendly as it is forensic. He turns a sports interview into a free-flowing conversation in which he is not afraid to share revealing personal truths.
![[Andrey Rublev celebrates winning the final of the 2024 Madrid Open against Canada’s Felix Auger Aliassime.]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/21f6da949684b8c8598b179cc4055a3368f96478/0_0_4332_2855/master/4332.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
The 27-year-old has spent more than 220 weeks of his career in the world’s top 10. He has also reached 10 grand slam quarter-finals without making it to the last four of a major. Rublev has come so close, so often, without cracking the mental code he needs to make a breakthrough to the next stage. Most tennis pros in such an intense and tangled scenario would shut down any probing discussions of their mentality. Rublev, instead, leads the way and peppers his analysis with moments that jump out with shocking immediacy.
![[Andrey Rublev and Coco Gauff play a shot in their Mixed Doubles charity match against Daria Saville and Lleyton Hewitt ahead of the 2025 Australian Open.]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/b3b59c373bbf840b28d6e82791dc6bbdbafae976/0_168_3736_2242/master/3736.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
