Russian tennis star Andrey Rublev admitted his behavior after the first set of his French Open first round meeting versus Sonwoo Kwon was unacceptable. After losing a first set tie-break, Rublev completely lost his cool as he took a ball out of his pocket, smashed it – the ball hit his chair and ricocheted back onto the court.
The ball came nearly to hitting a court-sweeper, but luckily for Rublev, the ball didn’t hit the court-sweeper in the head, even though his cap fell off.
Anything to say my loveley TT, the last bastion of morality? Rublev almost rip off the assistant’s head…
https://t.co/cmHILhUopQ pic.twitter.com/uDdeBH23ZP — James (@aiamjames) May 24, 2022
The French crowd let Rublev hear it with loud boos, while the chair umpire hit the Russian with a code violation and a warning. The court-sweeper remained calm and continued to do his job.
After losing the first set, Rublev bounced back as he claimed a 6-7 (5) 6-3 6-2 6-4 win.
Rublev on the incident
“In the first set I was quite tired and I had a lot of emotion inside of me,” Rublev said, per Eurosport.
“I tried to really control it and understand the situation, be positive and I was able to do it because there were so many break points, some stupid mistakes and I was able [for the most part] to be quiet and [remain] positive, basically until the end of the first set.
Then yes, I lost my mind for a moment, and of course, I’m regretful for what I did. It is unacceptable to hit the ball the way I [did]. It [may have been] better if I had hit the racquet because the ball can effect someone, and that is when the problem comes.
It is unprofessional from my side, and hopefully I will never do it again”. Rublev got off to a slow start versus Kwon but was able to recover and reach the second round. In his following match, Rublev plays tricky Argentine Federico Delbonis.
Rublev achieved his best French Open result in 2020, when he reached the quarterfinal before losing to Greek tennis star Stefanos Tsitsipas.
