It’s ‘me vs me’ for Andrey Rublev this year. Though the Russian drips of athletic finesse like a broken faucet, he’s had a hard time managing his temperament. He lost his temper again during his Paris Masters campaign and, it wasn’t the first time. Worried about the young star’s mental health struggles, a prominent journalist issued a concerning statement, highlighting what fans expect of the Russian player to improve and sideline concerns haunting his tour-level journey.

Tensions ran high in Paris after Rublev had a full-blown rage episode during his clash against Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo. He seriously wounded himself after repeatedly striking the racket on his knees and tossing his gear around. Much like a series of outbursts, the 27-year-old self-inflicted injuries at Wimbledon after crashing out in the first hurdle against the same Argentine rival. While he blamed the event’s strict rules for his ‘disturbing’ antics, “I wouldn’t do it if I was able to hit the racquet on the floor”, his behavior stunned many, with some questioning his mental well-being. Earlier, he hurt his left knee at the French Open, before bowing to Matteo Arnaldi.

Despite hoping to find some solace at the ATP Finals and produce a noteworthy turnaround, Rublev was overpowered by Alexander Zverev in the round-robin opener. With fans praying for a consistent and ‘unproblematic’ performance on the Russian’s part, Jim Courier and Paul Annacone hopped on the ‘Tennis Channel Live Podcast’ and noted that “no one wants to see” more of Rublev’s outbursts. They also noted that Rublev could benefit from a sports psychologist and, were relieved that his antics were “self-contained”.

“No one wants to see this. I’m sure he’s not enjoying this experience, but the only thing you can do is try and problem-solve it using someone who knows how to help people that are in this sort of confused head space. At least he’s not harming anyone else, right? So you start there, that he’s not lashing out at other people, he’s not hitting balls into the stands or throwing rackets in that way. So it’s at least self-contained.”

After a drama-filled summer, Rublev himself addressed his off-court struggles that have been taking a toll on his performance.

Andrey Rublev gets real about facing mental health issues

After claiming his second Top-5 victory over Jannik Sinner in Montreal, Russian superstar Andrey Rublev addressed his troubling on-court behavior that has been generating the wrong kind of headlines. During an interview, the 27-year-old highlighted that some of his struggles include burnout and depression – the latter of which has been a battle for years and reached its summit this year.

He said, “Mentally I was out of order. I guess it was already a long moment of everything (building up) and I started to burn out because I was struggling for many years with depression, with many things outside of the court… I guess this year it’s when I can’t handle it anymore, and it starts to just explode. It started to explode more and more on the court because in life I was able to stay calm but inside the court, I was burning everything.”

Despite such concerns, Rublev needs to remain level-headed if he wishes for a strong conclusion to the season. After losing to Zverev, the Russian stands to face Carlos Alcaraz and Casper Ruud in the remaining group-stage matches.