Andy Roddick says there is an ATP star who is ‘consistently disrespected’ by fans
Andy Roddick believes Andrey Rublev receives too much flack tennis fans and pundits ahead of his appearance at Wimbledon.
Rublev has reached 10 Grand Slam quarter-finals in his career, but he has never gone any further.
The Russian star currently sits at World No 13 in the ATP Tour rankings, although he has been has high as World No 5 before in his career.
Ahead of Wimbledon, Roddick defended Rublev from criticism when discussing his upcoming draw at the grass court Grand Slam.
Rublev is set to play Roman Safiullin and on his podcast Served, Roddick discussed the star’s chances of going deep into the competition.
More ATP Tour news
Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner are ‘as good as the Big 3’, claims Grand Slam champion
Novak Djokovic explains what he would ‘love’ to do with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal soon
“Rublev, he’s gone from the guy that was like always five in the world where people like, ‘Oh, he’s not going to make it past the quarters to now he’s like [World No] 12 and people like still look overlook him,” said Roddick.
“No, no, no. He’s still really good all the time,” defended the American. “I don’t know. I just feel like he gets consistently disrespected.”
Roddick then tipped Rublev to reach the round of 16 of Wimbledon this year, but doesn’t expect him to get past Novak Djokovic in that round.
It’s understandable to see why Roddick has defended Rublev so staunchly, as he has proved himself one of the most consistent players on the Tour.
While other top players fluctuate in the rankings, Rublev has been a model of consistency.
At 28, Rublev has been ever-present on the ATP Tour for 12 years now, and he’s rarely fallen down the rankings in the past five seasons.
Rublev has not been ranked outside the top 20 of the ATP Tour since 2020, when he was 23rd in the world at the beginning of that season.
That’s an incredibly impressive achievement from a player of Rublev’s stature and so are the 17 ATP Tour titles he’s collected so far in his career.
The Russian star won two Masters title at the Monte Carlo Masters and the Madrid Open, and he’s reached a further four finals at Masters level.
Rublev has also won six ATP 500 events and he reached another 500 final earlier this year at the Barcelona Open, which he lost to Arthur Fils.
The Russian star might not be challenging at the very end of Grand Slams, but his consistency on the ATP Tour cannot really be matched by anyone outside of Alexander Zverev, Djokovic, Jannik Sinner, and Carlos Alcaraz.
Roddick is right about Rublev and the star has every chance to have a deep run at a Grand Slam before he retires from the game.
