The tennis season on clay-courts continues at the Mutua Madrid Open, the second Masters 1000 event of the year on this surface, after Monte-Carlo, fourth overall. One of the most serious candidates to lift the trophy on Sunday 7 May is Andrey Rublev, winner in the Principality.
The Russian is one of the best players of the moment. A few days ago he came close to winning the 250cc Banja Luka, but Dusan Lajovic blocked his way in the final. While waiting to meet his first opponent in Madrid, the seeded number 5 presented himself to the microphones of the media, speaking of his ambitions, in view of the imminent start of the tournament.
He explained: “I think it’s difficult to win two Masters 1000 titles in a row. When you’ve been waiting so many years to win one, it would be surreal to win two in a row, but I’ll try to do my best.”
Andrey Rublev points to his favorite surface
Then on the differences in play applied to the three different surfaces, clay, hard and grass-courts: “The real tennis is played on clay, because it is the surface that requires you to think continuously, to be prepared for long and intense battles, to have a increased physical and mental endurance, and also to be smarter.
On hard or fast, everything is more improvised because you hardly have time to think.” The 25-year-old, having won his first major trophy after years of waiting, wants to repeat this enormous satisfaction as soon as possible.
Rublev was drawn on the same side of the draw as Carlos Alcaraz, Holger Rune, Casper Ruud and our own Lorenzo Musetti. The Russian could face, in a hypothetical quarter-final, the new champion from Barcelona, who as the favorite of the tournament, will be called to defend last year’s title.
Rublev, after winning his first Masters 1000, played in Banja Luka, and now he will be one of the protagonists of the next stages of the clay-season: Madrid, Rome and Paris.
