French Open preview: Andrej Rubljov. Will the Russian tame his emotions and finally achieve great success at the Grand Slam?

The turn of May and June is reserved in the tennis world for the French Open. The second Grand Slam of the season is hosted by Paris and the Musketeers’ Cup is traditionally contested by the world’s top players. Let’s take a look at the biggest favourites for the only clay grand slam on the circuit. Now it’s the turn of Russian tennis player Andrey Rublyov.

The first round of Roland Garros will begin on Sunday, May 28. This time, the top event of the clay court part of the season has to do without Rafael Nadal, the record holder for the most titles at the Paris Grand Slam. In our initial preview, we looked at the ambitions of last year’s semi-finalist Alexander Zverev. Today, it’s the turn of the current world number seven, Russia’s Andrey Rublyov.

Andrey Rubljov

The Moscow native’s strongest weapon is his forehand. But sometimes he overdoes it with aggressiveness, which results in mistakes. His very strong first serve is also a great support. However, he elevates his partial qualities to a higher level of the art of winning and the world number one ranked player is said to possess just that like few others.

Clay is said to be the surface on which real tennis is played, but he has no favourite surface. Which he confirms with his long-term results. The Russian’s tournament triumphs are evenly split between clay, hard court and indoor.

Lately, the Moscow native and his team have been focusing more on mental preparation. Rubljov has trouble keeping his emotions in check. He has lost a fair number of matches on his own. Currently, “Rubl” says he wants to believe in the positive influence of working on his own emotions.

Perhaps improving this aspect of his game will help him improve on his best ever performance at the French Open. That is a double appearance in the quarterfinals. By the way, he has finished at this level a total of seven times at Grand Slams.

Current form

The Russian is doing very well on clay this year. In Monte Carlo he beat all the players who stood in his way. He beat Khachanov, Fritz and Holger Rune in the final. In the following event in Banja Luka, he went undefeated in the final. He was beaten in three sets by Dusan Lajovic of Serbia.

The Madrid Open brought a rematch with Khachanov, where Rubljov lost 6:7 and 4:6. The rematch against his compatriot was Rubljov’s twelfth match in three weeks. Before the Masters in Rome, the 25-year-old Russian had the opportunity to regain his strength, which he definitely needed in the dress rehearsal for Roland Garros.

At the Italian event he met players playing in very good form. He defeated both the Slovak Molčan and the Spaniard Fokina in two sets. He lost a set in the eighth round against the German Hanfmann, who had just reached his career best in Rome.

Rubljov lost the first set in a shortened game, but had the upper hand in the second. He dominated with winning forehands and eventually took the set.

But Hanfmann served excellently and when Rubljov’s errors from the backhand and the Russian’s mental breakdown from some moments of the match were added, the result was decided. And here we go again with emotion management, Rubljov still has a lot to work on in this respect. And there’s not much time. Roland Garros starts in a week.

Finally…

The Russian tennis player has shown in his opening clay events this year that he is a force to be reckoned with on the slowest surface. The last two tournaments have partly shown his limits, but he deserves at least a dark horse position at Roland Garros.

Sources: ATP, Eurosport