Rublev: “Last year I couldn’t stand Roland Garros psychologically, but now the task is to control the internal state”

Russian tennis player Andrei Rublev does not know how the upcoming Roland Garros will turn out for him, but considers the psychological factor the main key to success in the tournament.

– Nobody knows how I will play on RG. Maybe I’ll lose in the first round. These things cannot be controlled, because this is a sport – anything can happen. What I can control is the internal state, so that there is no such mistake as in that year. Because in 2022 I could not stand it psychologically. Now the task is a state – it does not matter: you won or lost – to keep in the right direction. Because then there will be more good than bad.

It’s not even about confidence, it’s about stress. When you see that victory is close, or you think: “Here, there is a chance.” You start to get driven, worry, you have stress like, conditionally, a panic attack. Every athlete lives this. It’s just that the one who is more cold-blooded about it does it better, because as soon as you see that it is slipping out of your hands, you don’t want to believe it. Then you start to stress even more and dig yourself into this pit of panic.

Goals are to improve. Now I have more confidence that the whole process that I do is right. And we must continue – try to squeeze even more maximum out of it, while there is this time. Let’s see what happens next, – said Rublev “Championship”.

Rublev lost to Marin Cilic in the quarterfinals of Roland Garros last year in a decisive tie-break. This year the French Open will be held from May 28 to June 11.