Rublev: "It's crazy how stressful the Masters race is".
Andrey Rublev had another nervous breakdown this week, against Francisco Cerundolo in the second round of the Paris-Bercy Masters 1000. And while the Russian is no stranger to nervous breakdowns, the current context is no stranger to them either.
The end of the season is fast approaching, and with it the highlight of the end-of-year tennis season: the ATP Finals in Turin. Five players have already qualified (Sinner, Alcaraz, Zverev, Medvedev and Fritz) and three places are still up for grabs.
Currently 8th in the Race rankings, Rublev is a serious candidate to qualify for the Masters tournament. But this uncertain position, and the need to do better than the other players still in the running, tends to put him under undue stress. He explained this before the start of the tournament in Paris-Bercy.
Andrey Rublev: "It's stressful. Yes, it's stressful because, normally, I don't look at the rankings at all. I don't follow tournaments. During the season, I don't watch the rankings.
Last year, I don't think I did, I didn't even open the ranking once. Because last year, I qualified quite early. So I didn't look at the rankings all year.
But for the last two weeks, I've been checking the Race ranking every day. The difference with points. I check other players' tournaments. I check the draw. It's crazy.
During the tournament, when I'm playing, I try not to follow all that. But, of course, even if I don't want to, I know the results of the other players, I'm not going to lie. Because you hear or see them anyway. But I don't check when they play or who they play and that sort of thing on purpose.
But when I lose, I can check: 'Okay, this guy's playing tomorrow at this time. Okay, I'll see how he does. It's not an enviable position to be in, but that's part of the sport too. You have to learn to deal with it and do it in a healthy way.
Because at the end of the day, we're all good guys: me, Casper (Ruud), Alex (De Minaur), Grigor (Dimitrov) and Tommy (Paul). And we all know each other very well. They're really nice guys.
I don't want to feel like we're competing against each other. I want to feel like I'm competing with myself. I'm trying to do my best to qualify.
If I succeed, great. If I don't, that means one of these guys did better. And since they're nice guys, and I respect them a lot, I'll be happy for them."
Paris 
