Andrey Rublev intended to improve his health during the Olympic Games, but he was not going to miss the Wimbledon tournament. The Russian was not among the main contenders for victory, but still, the sixth seed obliged him to feel confident on the court in the early stages of the tournament.

Unfortunately, our athlete was eliminated after the first match, losing to a no-name from Argentina. It seems that Andrey really needs to rest a little and reboot.

Rublev’s Torment

Russian tennis player Andrey Rublev began the Wimbledon tournament with a match against the world’s 122nd racket Francisco Comesana. The 23-year-old Argentine had previously played three matches at ATP tournaments, losing all of them. The athlete did not shine on grass either, playing only his second game on this surface.

Rublev’s fans seemed to have no reason to worry. Yes, the Russian is probably not in the best shape right now, but he should still beat such an opponent. Some fans started to worry after the first set: Andrey lost with a score of 4:6. The Russian had very little success in the opening set, and the Argentinean had six aces.

In the second set, it seemed that Andrey was able to adapt. He won three games in a row, but then our tennis player had problems again. The Russian allowed his opponent to equalize the score. Surely, at this point, many of Rublev’s fans were asking themselves: “How much more can this go on?”

The Russian gave hope to the fans by taking another serve under zero, and after a pause was close to finishing the game on the opponent’s serve. He had to suffer a little, but still with a score of 7:5 our tennis player took the set. It seemed that now everything would get better and fall into place.

Andrey Rublev / Photo: © Francois Nel / Staff / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

Bloody knee

The local failure did not frighten the Argentine too much. He slowed down in a particular set, allowing Rublev to find his game, but then he started working miracles again. A long pause, which happened due to bad weather, caught the opponents with the score 4:1 in favor of Comesana, and Andrey – with blood on his knee. For a while, the Russian held back his emotions and did not allow himself to throw his racket on the grass, but then he lost his temper and beat his own leg with the same racket.

After the pause, the game could not be saved, but hope remained. In the fourth set, Rublev confidently took his serves, but could not earn a break. The game predictably reached a tie-break, where, with close chances for success, the Argentinean snatched victory – 7:6 (7:5) in the set and 3:1 in the match.

For Comesana, a victory over a top-10 player is, of course, a great achievement. For Rublev, such a match is a complete failure. He will drop significantly in the ranking, but this is not the worst thing. The main thing is that after the forced break, Andrey can return to his previous game.