“Unprofessional” Rublev loses his mind but reaches second round at Roland-Garros

Seventh seed Andrey Rublev lost his mind but not the battle as he saw off Soon Woo Kwon of Korea 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 to reach the second round of Roland-Garros in Paris on Tuesday.

Angry at losing the first set, the Russian was lucky not to cause any injury when he smashed a ball into his chair after the first set, which ricocheted back and narrowly missed ball boys.

“The first set, I was quite tight and I had a lot of emotions inside of me,” Rublev said. “I tried to really control them. Tried to understand the situation. Be positive. And I was able do this, because there was so many games in the first set (when) I was love-30, break points, doing sometimes some stupid mistakes, and I was able to be quiet and just be positive. Basically till the end of the first set.

“Then, yes, I lost my mind for a moment, and of course I regret what I did. It’s unacceptable to hit the ball the way I hit it. It’s more, I don’t know, better even if I just hit the racquet on the seat, because the ball can affect — I mean, it’s not about me. It can affect someone. That’s when the problem comes. This is unprofessional from my side, and hopefully I will never do it again.”

This was only the second time in four main draw appearances at the French Open that Rublev has escaped the first round in Paris. He had lost his opening round match in Paris in 2017 and 2021, reached the quarter-finals in 2020, and missed the 2018 and 2019 editions.

Rublev, a three-time ATP title-winner in 2022 but still searching for his first Grand Slam semi-final, will next meet Argentine Federico Delbonis, who scored a 6-1, 7-6, 6-2 win over Frenchman Adrian Mannarino.

Paris (Grand Slam): Other first-round results (Stade Roland-Garros, clay, EUR 43.600.000)

• Lorenzo Sonego (32) beat Peter Gojowczyk: 6-2, 6-2, 6-1
• David Goffin beat Jiri Lehecka: 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4
• Cristian Garin beat Tommy Paul (30): 5-7, 6-1, 6-2, 6-3
• Henri Laaksonen beat Pedro Martinez Portero: 2-6, 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 [1]
• Casper Ruud beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga: tuesday
• Richard Gasquet beat Lloyd George Harris: 6-1, 6-3, 6-4
• Alexander Bublik beat Arthur Rinderknech: 6-2, 6-4, 6-4
• Sebastian Korda (27) beat John Millman: 6-1, 7-5, 7-6 [6]
• Alex Molcan beat Federico Coria: 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3
• Ilya Ivashka beat Benoit Paire: 6-3, 7-5, 1-6, 7-5
• Laslo Djere beat Ricardas Berankis: 6-4, 6-4, 6-4
• Holger Vitus Nodskov Rune beat Denis Shapovalov (14): 6-3, 6-1, 7-6 [4]
• João Sousa beat Chun-Hsin Tseng (Q): 6-7 [5], 6-1, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4
• Emil Ruusuvuori beat Ugo Humbert: 6-2, 2-6, 6-7 [4], 6-4, 6-2
• Daniil Medvedev (2) beat Facundo Bagnis: 6-2, 6-2, 6-2

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