The champagne was already flowing. Team Europe had just put the finishing touches on Team World in the 2021 edition of the Laver Cup in Boston, a dominant 14-1 beatdown, and Daniil Medvedev was using the celebratory post-tournament presser as an opportunity to troll a teammate.
“I don’t know what to say: Amazing, amazing, amazing… amazing,” he mocked, much to the amusement of captain Bjorn Borg’s blue-jacketed players, all of whom seemed to be in on the joke.
Medvedev’s target was countryman and longtime friend Andrey Rublev, long known as a jokester himself, but also as a man of few words. But if there’s a player who’s never really been fully understood, fully appreciated on the ATP Tour, it’s the 6-foot-2 baseliner with the moppy, shock-red hair, explosive forehand and waggish sense of humor. When it comes to Rublev’s word count, it’s often quality over quantity.
“I just try to be myself. That’s it,” said Rublev, 26, this week in Flushing Meadows, where he’s played his way into the quarterfinals of the US Open for the second straight year.
The eighth-ranked baseliner has looked as focused as ever on the courts of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, where he will attempt to break a 0-8 record in major quarterfinals when he faces his next opponent, fittingly, his pal Medvedev, the 2021 US Open champion. (Asked if he would watch Medvedev’s Round 4 matchup with Alex de Minaur, Rublev said, “If he’s playing when I will have dinner, no chance.”)
Following his third-round win over Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech, Rublev donned a T-shirt that read: FEAR IS YOUR FRIEND. He says its meaning is open to interpretation.
“Each person takes it in a different way,” he explained. “Me? Fear is always helping you because if you’re afraid to lose, you start to move faster, you start to be more active. You don’t want this to happen. It’s kind of motivating you more. Everyone has fear, is afraid of something. It’s normal. When people say they’re not afraid, they’re lying. It’s a feeling that everyone has. It’s a part of our lives. It’s just a matter of how you take it.”
Rublev sure looked fearless in fighting back from a set down in both the semifinals and final to claim his first ATP Masters 1000 title earlier this year at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters. There was a weight lifted, yes, but the breakthrough didn’t mean he could let go of the week-to-week pressure that is part and parcel of tour life.
“Everyone has fear, is afraid of something. It’s normal. When people say they’re not afraid, they’re lying. It’s a feeling that everyone has. It’s a part of our lives.”
“No chance, man,” he said. “When you go to the next tournament, the pressure is always there. It doesn’t matter how many titles you have: It’s never enough.”
“The pressure is always there because you want to perform the best you can. At the same time, there’s no pressure because it’s just a game. Anything can happen. Even the best players, they can lose. This is normal. This is part of the game. It’s tough to keep this mindset though. One day you feel closer to this mindset, you feel better; the next, you go back and put a lot of pressure on yourself. It’s all about balance.”
There’s some real Jekyll-and-Hyde splintering to Rublev’s personality. Off court, despite his trademark brevity, he can be thoughtful and self-reflective, a merry prankster; on the court, he often comes off as a tortured soul, self-flagellating and ridden with torment.
“It’s his biggest strength at the same time,” said Brit Jack Draper, who pushed Rublev to four sets in the Round of 16. “He can lose it, then he comes straight back out again and plays great. He’s a great competitor, he wins a lot of matches on tour. He’s well known for just being really strong. Even though he does lose it sometimes, everyone’s got a different way of dealing with their emotions and pressure and the relentlessness of the sport. It’s not easy to just stay calm the whole time. You’ve sometimes got to let it out.”
“I mean, it’s not easy,” smiled Rublev. “I get mad with myself.”
Do those outbursts, as Draper suggests, help him in any way?
“No,” he insisted. “Obviously, it’s not helping.”
Rublev will be facing more than just a friend and fellow needler in the third seed Medvedev, against whom he’s 2-5. This is family: He is the godfather to Daniil and wife Daria’s daughter, Alisa.
“We built our relationship because of tennis, but now it’s already bigger than tennis,” noted Rublev. “We’ve known each other since we were six. We have a great relationship. He’s super honest, super relaxed. It’s super easy to communicate with him. Very humble. At the same time, he’s really, really funny. When you spend time with him, you always have fun.”
“We’re really close friends,” said Medvedev. “I think we have a great relationship. Even if on the court we’re big competitors, nothing is going to come between us to separate us in real life.”
