“I feel proud” – positive Rublev upbeat despite Montreal final loss

Andrey Rublev is looking at the positive side of an impressive week in Montreal, despite losing out to Australia’s Alexei Popyrin in the final.

The Russian appeared in a more reflective, upbeat mood than he often is after big losses, as he address his post-match press conference in a calmer, more retrospective tone.

“My week, what can I say? I’m, like I said, just now I feel proud. I feel happy,” he said.

“Of course, you always want to win. It’s normal feeling for the tennis, but from the other side we cannot win every week. Every week we have to lose, and to lose in the final, it’s also nice achievement.

“I think the most important is the way you lose. If you accept the things and if you are ready to learn, it kind of can give you a huge jump in front. So I will just focus now to take a really good lesson.”

Rublev went on to explain that his excellent run at the National Bank Open, during which he took out world No 1 and defending champion Jannik Sinner en route to the final, has been effective preparation for the upcoming US Open at the end of this month.

“The week has been amazing for me for my tennis, for my improvement, for my ranking,” he continued.

“So just, yeah, take a lesson, to make of this lesson improvement, and be ready for the most important tournament which is the US Open.

“So to get ready in the best shape and prepare as well mentally as possible. I still have one more tournament, Cincinnati. So I will go there free just to play tennis. We’ll see how it goes. I don’t have much time to adapt, but we will see.

“It’s tough tournament, tough draw. So I just go there. I will try to enjoy. We’ll see what’s going to happen if I try just to enjoy next week.”

Rublev has often struggled with his combustible on-court demeanour, but is currently reaping the rewards of a calmer demeanour on the match court – something he has been working hard on in recent weeks.

“Since I started to be more clear in my head, every week I’m doing better and better. This week I feel really proud of myself.

“I feel really proud in some things that I was able to kind of react in a good way in some moments, in some matches because normally I would react in a completely different way. I guess I would not be a finalist.

“So I’m really proud that I was able to react in the right way, and it helped me to grow.”

The world No 8 will next play at the Cincinnati Open – taking place this week – before gearing up for the final Grand Slam of the year in New York in two weeks’ time.

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