Andy Murray sprinkles Andrey Rublev Rosen: "Will be at the forefront of the sport for a very long time"
Andy Murraypaid his respects to Andrey Rublev before meeting the Russian in the second round of the ATP 500 event in Rotterdam.
by Michael Rothschädl
last edit: Mar 03, 2021, 06:34 pm
It was in January 2017 when Andy Murray - then number one in the tennis world - was supposed to meet a young man from Russia in the second round of the Australian Open. At that time, the Scot was not supposed to spend much longer than an hour and a half with the 19-year-old youngster. Today, a good four years later, Murray has a rematch with the Russian - but under completely different circumstances.
Because the young man, Andrey Rublev his name, has grown up - and also climbed up in the world rankings. The 23-year-old is now ranked eighth in the ATP world rankings and can already look back on seven titles on the tour of the best tennis players in the world. And Andy Murray? He can only be found at number 123 on the ATP charts - he has had to struggle with serious injuries over the past few years.
The fact that the Russian is now the favorite in this rematch is mainly due to his hard work, as Murray emphasizes in the run-up to the meeting with Rublev: "He always trains. I have trained with him a few times and he refrains from warming up first ", explains Murray to the ATP. "He just goes into training with full power right from the start and that's how he plays the matches and that has given him many, many successes."
Murray: "I have to learn to calm down a little sometimes."
It is precisely this attitude that Rublev should continue to achieve in the future, the former world number one is convinced: "He will stay at the top of the game for a long time because he has a great work ethic," said the Scot. "And he's a very good player." Now it is up to the Russians to demonstrate this ability even more impressively at the Grand Slams, stresses Andy Murray.
And the Scot has a piece of advice that he doesn't want to withhold from the Russian: "I think the next step for him to win one or to advance in the majors is probably that he learns in the matches maybe to be a little quieter sometimes. " Rublev will probably need that in today's duel with the tactically savvy defensive artist Andy Murray.