NITTO ATP FINALS

November 15, 2021

Andrey Rublev

Pala Alpitour, Torino

Press Conference

A. RUBLEV/S. Tsitsipas

6-4, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions in English.

Q. I just saw on social media that you said in Russian that you fell asleep before the game, and when you woke up you thought it was another day. What is like that? Could you tell us about this curious moment?

ANDREY RUBLEV: I don't know what to say. Yeah, it's true. I mean, because my match was to play at 9:00 p.m., so during the day I had a lot of time, so I decided to sleep. Normally I don't sleep at all during the day, or even if I try to sleep, I never fell asleep, and today I fell asleep more than for one hour.

I put alarm at 6:00 p.m., and when I wake up, it was already so dark. I feel completely broken, like if someone wake you up at 7:00 a.m. I was thinking, No, I'm not going to wake up now. I'm going to sleep for another half an hour, because normally in the morning I put many alarms, like this, I can sleep longer. At least mentally I think like this.

Then, yeah, I start to look at the time. No, first of all, I feel strange. Normally I put always my phones on the to charge, and now they were not charging. So I was thinking, something strange. Normally overnight I always charge then.

Then I look at the time and it was 6:00 p.m. And I, like, What is this, 6:00 p.m., how is possible? Something like my phone get maybe a bit broken or something, and then I start to realize, Oh, I feel asleep during the day. Oh, I have a match in couple of hours. So I need to wake up. And, yeah, just moment like that.

Q. Do you remember if you have ever had a match where you were this consistent on your first serve, especially in the first set? Only two of your serves weren't first serves in the first set.

ANDREY RUBLEV: Yeah, not really. No, I don't remember, to be honest (smiling). I think it's the first time ever.

Yeah, I don't know what to say, because first time ever, and I'm happy with everything I did today on court, from serve, from return, from rallies from the baseline, to my mental part, how I controlled my emotions today.

So we'll see if I can keep going this way.

Q. I want to get your take on the surface. Daniil said it was playing the fastest he's ever played on. Do you feel it's a super-fast surface?

ANDREY RUBLEV: Yes, yes, super fast. I would say the same, like Daniil, that I think this is the fastest surface on tour. I mean, on ATP tour, for sure fastest. There is not one tournament with the same speed of this surface.

In my opinion, it's too much. It should be much, much, much slower, because not really many rallies. I was practicing the first week, and when you play with the guys, even practice set, there is no rallies. Serve, winner, serve, mistake, ace, ace, and you don't even feel the conditions because there is no rallies.

In my opinion it should be much, much slower.

Q. Seemed like you liked it today, though, I must say?

ANDREY RUBLEV: I mean, we have to. We have no choice. So we have to play in these conditions. If we could choose, trust me, I would go for the slow surface.

Q. What's your thoughts on next matches? Do you have a preferred opponent on Wednesday?

ANDREY RUBLEV: I mean, I'm going to play Novak. There is no -- I cannot choose. It's already set. I'm going to play Novak. Not much to say. He's one of the greatest players in history, so I don't know what to say.

I hope he's -- I mean, I hope I'm gonna win couple of games, but, no, but reality is the only thing I can do is to do my best and believe in myself. That's it. Not much to say.

Q. I wanted to ask you about the sparring partner, Jerome Kim, because he said he hits with you at least five, six times these past few days, and he beat you when he was 15 in Davis Cup, so I'm just curious, what do you make of him and...

ANDREY RUBLEV: He didn't beat me, first of all. That was a doubles match. He beat us in doubles, just to make it clear, 7-6 in the third (smiling), and we still beat them 3-1, so they had no chance against us.

Q. Thank you for clarifying.

ANDREY RUBLEV: Yes, to put him a bit down (smiling).

No, yes, we practiced many times this week, and he's super talented. Yeah, already at his age he serve like crazy. He serve better than me and stronger than me and than many players. He's only what, 18?

And I remember the match, even at Davis Cup when he was 15, he already was serving better than us. We were playing doubles, four of us, and he was the only one who was serving already 215, something like that.

Yeah, so we'll see. He have, with this serve, he can be easily great player. Then it's about him, if he will be smart and put right priorities and he'll be humble person. Then he will arrive to the great things, I think.