QATAR EXXONMOBIL OPEN

February 21, 2024

Andrey Rublev

Press Conference

A. RUBLEV/R. Gasquet

6-3, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Very quick match. Tomorrow I think you will be playing the surprise of the tournament, Jakub Mensik, who played one of the longest matches in the tournament. So how do you feel? Will you be very well prepared for the match, or maybe the short matches sometimes do not prepare you very well?

ANDREY RUBLEV: No, I will try to be 100% ready. I will try to do all the routines that I need to do, to recover well, and to be full for tomorrow, because like you said, Mensik is playing really well and he's doing good results, good wins, so I have to be really focused and ready to play, because he have nothing to lose.

He had already two good wins here. He will go full. He have nothing to lose, no expectations. So we'll see. I have to be really ready.

Q. I'm not sure if you got to watch any of Andy's match at all today.

ANDREY RUBLEV: I watched third set, because I was warming up in the second, and then Andy won so I saw the third set.

Q. I wanted to ask you what it feels like for a player when he's struggling with confidence? How does it feel for you when you're struggling with confidence on a court?

ANDREY RUBLEV: I don't know. I would like to know how it feels when you're not struggling with confidence (smiling).

I would like to have this feeling when you're fully confident, because me, I always not confident 100% no matter what, so I don't really know the feeling when you're fully confident.

But that's why to be not confident is a normal position for me, comfortable. So I would say basically this is my normal feeling, not to be confident.

I don't know. I think at least for me I find this position from one side maybe not that good, because sometimes when you're really confident, it helps you a lot, but from other side, I feel that this position also can help you a lot, because when you're not that confident, you take care even more of some details of extra things. You're starting to take care more.

When you are a bit too confident, sometimes you're not paying attention to them, and it sometimes might cost you something, but in the same time, it can give you a lot.

So I think it's more -- some players they win couple of matches and they feel full confidence. Some players they win couple tournaments in a row and they are still like, Okay, yes, I'm doing really well, but let's see how it's gonna be tomorrow. So they still want to make sure everything will be okay and they are not still fully confident.

So I think I'm more like a second type of the people.