Andrey Rublev completely lost his cool after suffering a shock defeat in the opening round of the 2024 Halle Open. The Russian had reached the final of the ATP 500 tournament in 2023.
Andrey Rublev was the fourth seed at the 2024 Halle Open and faced Marcos Giron in the opening round on June 18. The 26-year-old was defending 300 points, having placed second in the previous year's grass-court competition. However, he did not make a great start to the match, as he was broken in the first set, handing Giron the advantage.
Giron maintained his level in the second set, forcing a tiebreaker. While both players struggled to win points on their serve in the tiebreaker, Giron raced to a 6-2 lead. Rublev did well to stave off three match points but could not hold off the fourth, and so, Giron emerged victorious 6-4, 7-6 (5). After Giron made the fourth match point, the Russian lost cool and screamed loudly before smashing his racket on the grass court.
This isn't the first instance of Andrey Rublev letting out his frustration on the court; in fact, he has been unable to control his emotions several times on the 2024 WTA Tour. He was disqualified in the final set of his semifinal match at the Dubai Tennis Championships after losing his cool and shouting incessantly at the line umpire over a disputed call.
More recently, the World No. 6 raged at himself, smashed his racket into his legs, and kicked his bench after a dismal performance in the third round of the French Open. Rublev, though, did apologize for his outburst in Paris.
Andrey Rublev to play at Wimbledon Championships 2024 next, to miss Paris Olympics
Andrey Rublev would be hoping to turn around his grass court season at the 2024 Wimbledon Championships, his next assignment. The Russian will be defending 360 points at the grass slam after a quarterfinal finish last year. Rublev was seeded No. 7 and beat Max Purcell, Aslan Karatsev, David Goffin, and Alexander Bublik before losing to Novak Djokovic in the last eight contest.
While Rublev will mark his attendance at Wimbledon, he will not do so at the Paris Olympics. The Summer Games at the French capital will miss several high-profile tennis stars and Andrey Rublev is amongst them.
The Russian was the gold medalist at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in the mixed doubles category. He earned the accolade after defeating Aslan Karatsev and Elena Vesnina in the gold medal contest with his partner Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.