Athletes often suffer from various mental health issues given the constant pressure of winning and maintaining their form. From Naomi Osaka to Nick Kyrgios, all have spoken about their challenges to maintain their professional life and get out of serious mental health struggles. Now, adding more fuel to the matter, Andrey Rublev drops his two cents on how he copes with this issue.
Rublev reached the 2024 Canadian Open finals against Alexei Popyrin today. He defeated Italy’s Matteo Arnaldi by 6-4 and 6-2 to reach the finals. Yesterday in a press conference, Rublev delved deeper into his career’s ups and downs and associated mental health battles. After reaching the finals, when a reporter asked him to drop some advice for the young people struggling with it, Rublev mentioned that he “also need that advice.” He prioritized the “awareness” among people regarding any decision they make in their lives. “Like any decision you take or any feeling you are feeling or emotions, to be awareness of that, where exactly it’s coming from, why, and to be awareness that it’s your decision,” Rublev said. This Russian ATP star explained that at times people are so clouded with others’ opinions that they can’t understand whether it is their own opinion or others’.
Rublev suggested, “So to be awareness of each step, each feeling you are having, to make sure it’s your own because when you’re living the life how you would like, you feel much better. That’s it. Otherwise, it’s just kind of a lie to yourself. Then that’s why I guess we all start to struggle because deep inside we understand that something is wrong, something is wrong, but we don’t want to accept this.” Rublev’s statement screamed the reality of the people belonging to the current generation.
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The Russian defeated Jannik Sinner in Montreal and received much applause for reaching many ATP 1000 finals this season. Despite such a good career graph, Rublev admitted, “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.”
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While Rublev has been vocal about his mental health battles for a long, he has sought help to overcome them. Rublev’s gesture helps inspire many young athletes out there to not keep their mental health issues secret and to get proper help.
Andrey Rublev opened up about seeking help for his mental health challenges
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This ATP star has been speaking about this challenge for a long. However, despite trying to cope with it, Rublev sought help like an intelligent person. When during a press conference at the 2024 Canadian Open, Rublev was asked whether he was working with someone, or figuring it out by himself, this tennis player dropped a surprising reaction. “Everything. I was trying to figure out a lot by myself. I was trying to figure out those things a lot with a different psychologist, with a different courses, but who helped me a lot and he make me realize everything is Marat Safin,” he said.
Rublev’s answer became motivation to many young athletes out there struggling with mental health issues like depression. The way Rublev opened up about it without hesitation must have brought much courage to others with the hope that they can overcome it too. Andrey Rublev’s success is an example of how hard work and resilience can help people achieve their dreams no matter what.