ATP: Andrey Rublev in Vienna – The hard way back

Andrey Rublev celebrated his 20th birthday in Vienna on Saturday. After a strong year in 2017, the Russian is only slowly regaining momentum after a break from injury. Rublev starts as Lucky Loser at the ATP World Tour 500 tournament in Vienna.

By Jens Huiber from Vienna

“Speed kills,” says the American. If this can also be applied to tennis, then Andrey Rublev lives constantly on the edge of the abyss. Basically, it’s almost unbelievable how fast the 20-year-old Russian has penetrated the ball since Saturday, not only in the match. During his last years, Fernando Vincente was given the task of restraining this mad pace to some extent.

The former top player from Spain also makes himself available as Rublev’s import partner. Vicente can’t keep up with his protégé’s pace, of course, but from a standing start the 41-year-old leaves nothing to be desired in the warm-up against Mikhail Kukushkin for the qualifying final.

Despite his youth, Andrey Rublev is already an example of how quickly a crash can follow the rise in the ATP world rankings. Therefore without own fault. In the summer of 2017 Rublev had won his first tournament on the Tour in Umag as Lucky Loser, a few weeks later after winning against Grigor Dimitrov he had an appointment with Rafael Nadal at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

The current season started promisingly, in Doha it was enough to enter the final, where Rublev Gael Monfils lost. Then the third round at the Australian Open, this time Dimitrov was the stronger man. In the spring, however, the back made itself felt, dampening Rublev’s forward momentum alarmingly.

The defeat in the Davis Cup at home in Moscow against Dennis Novak was only followed by another tournament appearance in Monte Carlo, where Rublev narrowly lost to Dominic Thiem in round two.

There was a break until the title defence in Umag. According to Jan de Witt, whose break point base was Rublev’s guest for a few weeks as a 16-year-old, this was the worst time for the Russian. “Andrey doesn’t care if he’s qualifying or main-field. The main thing is that he can hack the ball,” explained de Witt in an interview with tennisnet.

So in Vienna it really became the qualification, Lukas Miedler had no order against Rublev in round one. The same could be said of the latter against Mikhail Kukushkin, only five games the Kazakh allowed his opponent. Fortunately for Andrey Rublev Richard Gasquet had to withdraw his entry, the Muscovite will also start in Vienna as Lucky Loser. A Da Capo of a success á la Umag nevertheless seems rather unlikely. The field in Vienna is too well occupied. Even if the first task against Denis Kudla was friendly.

Here the single tableau in Vienna