QATAR EXXONMOBIL OPEN

February 22, 2025

Andrey Rublev

Press Conference

A. RUBLEV/J. Draper

7-5, 5-7, 6-1

THE MODERATOR: All right, first question.

Q. Andrey, congratulations. So years will go by, champions will come and go, but in history you will always be the first man ever to win Qatar ExxonMobil 500. So how does that make you feel, and is Qatar a special place in your heart?

ANDREY RUBLEV: I mean, it feels amazing. It feels really great. It's like I was saying before, it's my first tournament that I win twice. So I never won something, I never won the same tournament twice. I only did final, win or, yeah, couple of times finals, and then win. But never two, like to win it twice.

Doha was one of the tournaments that I did final, and I won it. Now it's become that I was able to win it for the second time. And like you said, being this event is 500 it makes it even more special. So, yeah, super happy.

Q. You and Medvedev have the same situation, he won 20 tournaments but never same tournament twice. So will you tease him about that?

ANDREY RUBLEV: I don't know, I need also to take some lessons, because I never win twice same tournament, so we'll see.

Q. You said that since the beginning of the year you tried different thing to improve your game, but it was too early to say if it works. Now it seems that it worked.

ANDREY RUBLEV: I mean, we'll see. I mean, this week it looks like, yes, that it's working, I'm on the right direction, so we'll see.

I guess the most important thing now is to keep that feeling and that vision that I was having in the beginning of the season, because that belief bring me where I am today. My team that are next to me, because sometimes when you start to win you start to maybe be blind, and you start to feel like it's normal. And it's like, even more, even more. It's never enough, never enough. So it's like, I guess the most important thing now is to remember the feeling that I was having beginning of the season, with which goals I was stepping in, and to put attention, to keep putting attention to them to be able to keep improving.

Q. I heard that you get a suggestion from Steph Curry, that you wrote something on your shoes?

ANDREY RUBLEV: Yeah, yeah.

Q. So which is the word that you wrote on your shoes?

ANDREY RUBLEV: No, the word is "responsibility", and in the beginning I was writing it on my wrist. But because this part of the skin, not every pen can take it, it was tough to find a pen that will write here. Then I found a spot that any pen is working on the finger, so I write it on the finger. But the thing is, doesn't matter, wrist or finger, after couple of games, with the sweat, everything was gone.

Then I was watching one of the videos from Steph Curry that he was, I don't know, explaining some things what helps him, I don't know, to be kind of in his own way, but triggers him in a good way, some tools that he's using. One of them he said that he's writing some messages to himself, and he's writing them on his shoes.

Then I thought that this idea that I'm writing on the hand is perfect, like he's doing on the shoes, because it stays there, it doesn't go away. Every time you put the shoes on you're writing it, so it's perfect. I start to do the same thing, just with the word that helps me.

Q. (Question off microphone.)

ANDREY RUBLEV: Yeah, responsibility. No, no, the same.

Q. Another long match, but two tight sets in the beginning, and third one was relatively quick. Could you please talk us through, did you change anything, was there a change in the approach after the two tight sets, and if you could just talk us through what was going on in your mind.

ANDREY RUBLEV: Yeah, there was different approach in the third set. The match I think was tough for both of us because we were exhausted from the two tough singles, me and Jack. Jack was finishing really late. I was playing long matches, tough mentally.

Then when we start to play, some rallies we had amazing rallies from baseline. But for us, I felt the same for him and for me, we were doing sometimes mistakes that normally we shouldn't do. Some returns we were missing without any idea, me or him, we were framing returns. I guess it's just because we were also mentally tired.

Then, second set he was able to win.

And when I went to the bathroom, somehow I was able just to let it go, everything, and I found extra energy, extra relief, I don't know how to call it, and I start to play even better.

I start to feel that Jack is getting even more tired. He start to play shorter rallies. He was not trying to play rally, he was trying to finish the rally as soon as he can. I start to feel it in the second game when he was serving. When I was able to break him, then he went even more down, and I went even more up.

Q. Last three years, three different Russian players. What is the secret for the Russian player here in Doha? The weather, the hard court?

ANDREY RUBLEV: I don't know the secret. I guess it's just happened. I don't know. There is no secret, to be honest. It just happened. All three of us, we have completely different team, completely different mentality. I mean, mentality maybe similar, because we're from one country. But different view how we see our tennis, different view how we need to work. We practice in different places. We don't have like the same system or something. I guess it's just kind of just happened.

Like, I don't know, now there is a lot of Italian players that they have their own team and stuff like that. And you never know, I don't know, where it's going to be. Sometimes in one country there is more players in this generation, then suddenly from another country, and you cannot predict this.

Q. You threw a racquet during the final, but during all the week seems that you were in control with your emotion, maybe much more than the last past months. It seems like you maybe you could find some inner peace.

ANDREY RUBLEV: I wish. I hope. Like I said before, I'm just on the way. I'm trying some things. Because I tried many things, some of them helped me for little bit, some of them doesn't help me at all.

Now I found some new things that for the moment I feel that they are helping me. And then the only question is, over time, whether it will help me completely, or I still will find a way to behave like back in the days. So we'll see. I don't have yet answer for that.

Like you said, this week I was able to be more in peace, and we'll see. For the moment I feel that this way is working, so I will keep doing this. We'll see if I can get even better, even better, and to be really more mature, like the best athletes that they are handling themself in the most difficult situations.