Today at the French Open first round, the no.7 seed Andrey Rublev won his first-round match against the South Korean, Kwon Soon-woo. Although the Russian tennis star won the match, one particular incident from that match got people talking. Notably, Rublev lost the first set to Kwon in a tie-breaker. At the end of the set, he showed some aggressive behavior, which could land him in trouble.
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Andrey Rublev lost his cool and almost hits an assistant
After losing the first set 6-7, he came to his sitting area and thrashed a ball with his racket out of frustration. The ball flew behind him and perilously close to an assistant worker. However, luckily for Rublev, it did not cause any damage to the worker.
However, Rublev’s anger didn’t stop there as he smashed his water bottle on the ground, receiving a code violation from the chair umpire. You can watch the video below.
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
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Despite the incident, Rublev won the match in four sets as he calmed himself. In the last three sets, he directed his aggression during the game while showing great composure to win the match by 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-2, 6-4.
Rublev apologizes for the incident
Later in the post-match press conference, when asked about that incident, Rublev apologized for his actions. “But, yeah, the first set, like I said, I was quite tight, and I had a lot of emotions inside of me. And I tried to really control them. Tried to understand the situation. Be positive. And I was able do this, because there was so many games in the first set. I was Love-30, breakpoints, doing sometimes some stupid mistakes, and I was able to be quiet and just be positive. Basically till the end of the first set,” Rublev explained.
Andrey Rublev said his behavior at the end of the 1st set today was "unacceptable" and "unprofessional". He also expressed hope that it'd never happen again.
"I lost my mind for a moment, & of course I'm regret for what I did. It's unacceptable to hit the way the ball I hit it." pic.twitter.com/xKyLkY8CpY
— Musab (@Musab_Abid) May 24, 2022
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“Then, yes, I lost my mind for a moment, and of course I’m regret for what I did. It’s unacceptable to hit the way the ball I hit it. It’s more, I don’t know, better even if I just hit the racquet on the seat, because the ball can affect – I mean, it’s not about me. It can affect someone. That’s when the problem comes. This is unprofessional from my side, and hopefully I will never do it again,” the Russian further said.
However, when asked about arguing with the chair umpire, he denied any such claims. “I didn’t have conversation with chair umpire,” he added.
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Nevertheless, he could get a massive fine for his actions. However, he probably won’t get disqualified from the tournament, as he didn’t cause any physical injuries. We’ll have to wait and see what actions the authorities take regarding the incident.