One of the breakout performers in the 2020 season was Andrey Rublev. The Russian had an unreal season with a record five titles and a joint record of 41 victories. He is hungry to prove himself more and win more. In a recent interview with Sport24, Rublev was happy with his achievements. But he also revealed that he would leave the victories record to win bigger tournaments like the ATP Finals triumph by his compatriot Daniil Medvedev.
“In terms of victories, Djokovic and I finished the same way. But I would rather choose indicators like Dani’s – to win the Masters in Bercy and the Final. Or even just the Final.”
Rublev finds himself level with 41 victories in 2020 which is tied with Novak Djokovic. And he won five titles which consisted of three ATP 500 titles and two ATP 250 titles.
“But it’s still a cool feeling, for fun. The very fact that we managed to win a lot of matches. This is a record, I have never had such a number.”
Rublev’s words indicate that he wants more because he would trade the 41 victories for one great run at a bigger tournament.
Russian Grand Slam champ Marat Safin also had one criticism for Rublev’s 2020 season. He wanted Rublev to win more of the Masters tournaments and Grand Slams.
“He won five tournaments, but these are not “Masters”, these are not “Grand Slam”. Novak won less but finished first. Andrey needs to switch and play in major tournaments.”
Before 2019, Rublev went past the 4th round stage of a Grand Slam just once since making his Grand Slam debut in 2015. But in 2020 he made quarterfinal appearances at the French Open as well as the US Open. And this ultimately resulted in him making his ATP Finals debut. So if he continues the upward trend, a good show at a Grand Slam will be a formality.
Many of Rublev’s peers were not surprised with his 2020 gains and expect him to challenge further. Let’s see how he performs in 2021.
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