He lost to the 122nd player in the world. With his defeat in the first round of Wimbledon on Tuesday, Russian tennis player Andrei Rublev caused one of the biggest surprises of the grass Grand Slam. Unfortunately, he accompanied it with another outburst of emotions, during which he almost hurt himself with a rocket.
The third set was on, in which Rublyov was losing again, when the Russian, after a botched shot from the baseline, began to furiously beat the racket on his thigh. The rush of emotions stopped only after seven strokes.
The video of this moment then went around the world of social networks. “I think Rublyov needs to see a sports psychologist. It happens a lot and it’s pretty exaggerated,” tennis fan Bill Cooney wrote on the post.
The BBC also paused on the X network over the outburst of anger. Well-known tennis reporter Ben Rothenberg pointed out that Rublyov did not even receive a warning from the referee for this.
“It’s a violation of the code of sportsmanship. It should be punished just because it’s disturbing the audience,” wrote a former editor of The New York Times.
The sixth player in the world eventually lost to the 122nd ranked Argentinean Francisco Comesan 1:3 and thus caused one of the biggest sensations of the tournament.
Rublev’s behavior was also a hot topic at the subsequent press conference. “Fans are quite worried about you when you hit yourself in the leg seven times. Do you feel that people see that and can be concerned about you?” was one of the journalists’ questions.
“I wouldn’t have done it if there wasn’t a ban on hitting the racquet on the lawn. At that moment I just needed to release my emotions, but thanks for asking, I’m fine,” said Rublyov.
The 26-year-old Russian showed a similar nervous collapse months ago at the French Open in Paris, where he also hit his leg with the racket, but also smashed into the clay in the third round of the Grand Slam. In the end it was also a defeat.
“I’m trying to improve in this regard. But it’s a process, it takes time,” said Rublyov.
The Russian thus lost the opportunity to defend last year’s quarter-finals in London. Now he has to prepare for the American concrete, because he decided to skip the Olympic Games in Paris.
