Andrey Rublev jokes about toxic relationship with Roland Garros

Andrey Rublev has joked that he has a toxic relationship with Roland Garros given his mixed results on the clay of Paris.

Rublev has reached the last eight twice in Paris but has also suffered some agonizing defeats.

He was particularly crushed after his quarter-final defeat to Marin Cilic last season.

“I don’t know, a bit toxic,” Rublev joked when asked about his relationship with the French Open.

“I have really great memories in Paris and I have really tough memories that were lessons for me, so we will see but in general I enjoy always outside the tournament.”

Rublev believes that his Monte Carlos Masters title breakthrough was evidence that changes he made at the turn of the season are taking him in the right direction.

He now has title wins at every level of ATP Tour action apart from Grand Slams and Tour finals.

“It was a really special feeling. I was not expecting it at all and I was in the moment, I enjoyed a lot,” Rublev said.

“It gives me a lot of confidence outside of tournaments after the beginning of the season when I changed a lot of things like the team.

“I was feeling that now I’m doing much better things on practices and this is probably the reward that I was looking for.

“Obviously I was feeling that I’m doing better but on tournaments, there were like ups and downs. With the result of Monte-Carlo you have more confidence that this was the right way and you now feel even more, you do it completely without doubt. You want to do it even better, more quality.”

Rublev has roped in Alberto Martin to assist his long-time coach Fernando Vicente in his technical team.

He credits his coach with helping him get over his struggles with being camera shy.

“Yeah I think Fernando, he make a lot of influence on me because at the beginning I was quite shy thinking in front of the camera maybe it’s not good to be yourself because people will get to know you, so it’s like you don’t want this,” Rublev said.

“With Fernando I learned it’s better to be yourself and then if they don’t like you at least it’s because of who you are, not because you’re trying to be someone else.”

Rublev will get his French Open tilt underway with a first round clash against Laslo Djere.

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