Unlike Daniil Medvedev, the fifth racket of the world, Andrei Rublev, did not look like a reinforced concrete choice for the Russian national team as a tennis player for all Davis Cup singles. Although Daniel was tired by the end of a busy season, including morally (especially after the triumph at the US Open), in almost any match he does not allow himself to fall below a certain level and defeats many rivals in the class, not even better than his best game.

Andrei has not acquired such a skill – at least not yet. Rublev’s game is more “explosive”, sharp, and for this kind of tennis he needs to be in good shape and feel the ball. This season, the Russian was in the appropriate form somewhere until April-May. Then the problems began – the form, and with it the results in most tournaments, began to decline. Probably, at some point, Rublev simply outplayed, speaking at too many competitions. He had very little time for training and rest.

Beginning in the summer, Andrei showed good results only in Halle and at the Masters in Cincinnati, which reached the final. At the same time, in the USA, he was lucky with the grid – on the way to the semifinals from the top 35 Rublev met only Gael Monfils, who himself, a week before, had won at least two matches in a row for the first time in a year and a half. In the semifinals, Medvedev confidently took the first set from him, but at the beginning of the second run he crashed into the camera, hitting, lost concentration, arguing with the judge on the tower and (in absentia) with the organizers, and in many ways gave that match himself.

After the US Open, Rublev played very weakly, neither at the Masters in Indian Wells and Paris, nor at home tournaments in Moscow and St. Petersburg, nor at the Final Championship in Turin, where Andrei did not hit Kasper Ruud in the decisive match and missed an excellent opportunity to advance from the group to the semifinals. The only exception was the doubles performance with Aslan Karatsev: the Russians made it to the Indian Wells final. Let’s leave the Laver Show Cup aside, there is a completely different atmosphere and significance of the results.

It is a bit paradoxical that it was this autumn, after relegation in the 3rd round of the US Open, that Andrey achieved the best result in the ranking for his career at the moment, becoming the fifth racket in the world. Rafael Nadal, who was ahead of him, “burned out” points for the title in New York in 2019, which helped the Russian debut in the top 5. At the same time, at the beginning of the next season, Rublev will have to defend many points for both 2021 and 2020. Among the points for the 2021 season there will be 310 points for the victory with the Russian national team in the ATP Cup – there Andrey, like four Daniil, won all singles matches.

But back to the Davis Cup. Rublev’s form raised questions, but there was not much choice in terms of replacements. Karen Khachanov, with the exception of the Tokyo Olympics, did not look better than Andrey this season, and Aslan Karatsev also played in the first half of the season at a higher level than in the second. True, in the fall he still had good performances – first of all, a victory in the Kremlin Cup. But Aslan’s mission in the Davis Cup was limited to doubles, and Andrei was his partner in the group stage. Accordingly, a double burden fell on Rublev and he became simply an irreplaceable player in the team. In total, Andrei played 6 matches before the final – 4 singles and 2 in pairs.

At the same time, Andrei did not simplify the task for himself. He fought in three sets against such opponents as Ecuadorian Roberto Quiros from the end of the third and the second Elias Imer from the end of the end. Feliciano Lopez, who is not currently in the top 100, who is already 40 years old, Rublev lost at all. Both matches he played in a pair were also three-set – but both Russians won, which ensured the first place in the group.

Rublev also spent a lot of emotions. For example, in the same duel with Kyros he bit the racket and beat the ball heartily with it, launching it under the arches of the arena.

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During the quarterfinal meeting with Sweden, Andrey, having lost the second set with a score of 5: 3, launched the ball no longer upward, but into the background at the end of the court. The problem was that this background is not ordinary, but electronic, showing various information and a schedule during the matches. It is divided into small sections connected to each other – Rublev entered one of them and hit the ball. It was out of order and glowed green throughout the entire decisive game, in addition from time to time giving out interference. The repair was carried out after the match, which the Russian eventually won in the tie-break of the decisive game.

But on Saturday, a completely different Rublev went to the same court. In the first set, Dominik Köpfer somehow kept the score, although with a break, Andrei took the lead almost immediately. With this game, the Russian was playing, and varied – just look at this one, shortened from the summer!

As a result, Rublev took the first batch with one break, but without any problems in his serve. For the continuation of the match, at first it was a little alarming – in all three previous matches in Madrid, the Russian invariably gave the second set. However, here Andrei seemed to use a time machine, which resulted in the return of the best version of Rublev from the beginning of this season. In the second set, the most valuable player on our team, who brought her the most (including doubles), was simply unstoppable. Almost every rally ended, if not with a blow through, then with a mistake by the German, who could not keep up with the pace and at the same time had to take risks in order to try to change at least something. Andriy, on the other hand, carried out one excellent attack after another, and in the end he designed the “steering wheel”.

“In comparison with previous matches today, the main goal was to start playing not to relax, as it happened before. When I won quite easily at the beginning of the matches, and then it seemed like there was no need to put in effort, in the end I gave everything to my opponents myself – and either won in three sets or the player. Today I realized that I had to play from the very beginning to the end and only add and add. If I can win 6: 0, then that’s the way to win. Don’t give anything away and don’t make stupid mistakes. In the end, it happened, “- said Rublev after the match.

Let’s hope that Andrey will maintain this attitude on Sunday. Winning Croatia is a must in a singles match, as this team currently has the best pair in the world.

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