Andrey Rublev understood that he had to change some things to get out of the crisis that has affected him in the last year and a half, which is why he decided to start a new collaboration with his compatriot Marat Safin. The latter cannot travel with him to all the tournaments on the calendar, but he is helping him with his advice and some progress has been seen from the Russian ace.
The player from Moscow put in good performances during the Wimbledon Championships last month and did not disappoint at the Toronto Masters 1000 either, although he was unable to 'defend' the final reached in Montreal last year.
He is not far from the Top 10 of the ATP rankings right now and can aspire to achieve this goal by achieving good results at the Cincinnati Masters 1000 and especially at the US Open, two tournaments that should be suitable for his game.
Rublev opens up on Safin
During a recent interview with 'Tennis Bolshe', Andrey revealed that Safin is spurring him to add new weapons to his game to become more unpredictable: "I've understood for some time that I have to do something different if I want to become competitive again at the highest level. I knew that scoring more frequently was one of the main keys from a tactical point of view, but I was almost never able to do it until Marat came along. He told me that there were no other options and I had to try until I could do it."
Although Safin has a consulting role in Rublev's team, his main coach continues to be Fernando Vicente who has followed him since the beginning of his career. The latter has sacrificed much of his private life to help Andrey realize his dream and the Russian champion has never missed an opportunity to show him his enormous gratitude.
"Our relationship goes far beyond what is usually between a player and his coach. Fernando is a member of my family in some respects," Rublev said in a recent interview.
