“For me, everything will be decided in Vienna and Paris”

On Sunday, in the final of the Gijon Open, a tournament of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) category 250 with a prize fund of €675,000, a Russian Andrey Rublev won his fourth title this year, beating American Sebastian Korda. In an interview with a Kommersant correspondent Evgeny Fedyakov The world No. 8 spoke about the victory, explained his decision to withdraw from the Naples tournament this week and assessed his chances of making it to Turin for the Nitto ATP Finals.

— You flew to Gikhon from Astana. How difficult was it to adapt to the rather insidious four-hour time difference and adjust to the changing court surfaces?

– I traveled to Gijón all day and, having arrived, I felt tired both physically and mentally. But, thank God, we managed to quickly adapt and show good tennis. The surface here, compared to Astana, turned out to be completely different, as were the balls. But it wasn’t very fast. On such courts, as in Gijón, you can run, play long draws. Perhaps that is why I quickly adapted and felt comfortable.

– How dangerous for you in terms of technique and tactics was Sebastian Korda, with whom you played in the final?

– This is a strong opponent. He serves well, enters the court quickly and plays aggressively. Yes, and at the reception, which he owns very well, he tries to immediately take the initiative into his own hands. But in the end, everything worked out well for me. I not only managed to repel his blows, but also imposed my own pace on him.

– In the final, you never gave up your pitch. Yes, and it lasted 75 minutes – less than each of the three previous matches. Can we say that it was the easiest meeting of the week?

“I wouldn’t say so. Perhaps, according to the result, it really may seem so. But let’s take a look at my three previous matches in Gijón. In the first of them, against Ilya Ivashko, I was leading 6:3 and 4:2, but I missed the chance to make another break, instead I gave up my serve and lost the second set. In the quarter-finals with Tommy Paul in the second set, I was 3-0 ahead and had a triple break point on his serve, which I also could not convert, as a result of which a struggle ensued. In the first set of the semi-finals against Dominic Thiem, I failed to serve for the first set with a score of 5:3, and it’s good that I immediately managed to take someone else’s serve. There were tense moments in the final too. In the first and second sets, Korda had break points. So it wasn’t an easy win at all. I just managed not to bring things to trouble, as in other games.

– Of your twelve titles, exactly half were won in tournaments held indoors. But in percentage terms, there are much fewer of them than open-air tournaments. Can you say that you feel most comfortable in the halls?

“Honestly, I didn’t think about it. This is new information for me, since I myself have never counted my titles in the halls and in the open air. I think that the most important thing for a tennis player is to win, and where exactly is not very important. And, of course, we need to work on the game.

– Your decision to withdraw from the tournament in Naples, which will be held this week, was largely dictated by fatigue or the fact that this tournament, like the Gijon one, has a 250 category and you will not be able to score enough rating points for the Turin race?

— First of all, I took off from Naples in order to have a rest before the last and very important tournaments of this year. When it comes to points, I don’t follow it very much, but I understand that in terms of Turin, nothing is guaranteed to me yet. For me, everything will be decided in Vienna and Paris.

– How closely will you follow the performances of your direct competitors in the Turin race this week – Felix Auger-Aliassime and Hubert Hurkach in Antwerp?

– I will not follow them, because now I practically do not watch tennis. I want to rest a bit, prepare and tune in to my next tournaments. In the end, I can’t influence the game of others in any way. In addition, he himself played quite well in Astana, in Gikhon, so this week no one will definitely get ahead of me, and then we’ll see.

Will the training regime in the coming days be normal or gentle? And where are you planning to celebrate your 25th birthday on Thursday – in Barcelona, ​​where you have a training base, or in Vienna?

– This week I plan to train as usual. I will switch to a sparing regime already in Vienna. And the birthday, quite possibly, will have to be celebrated on the plane, since it is possible that on Friday I will fly to the tournament. Although no grandiose holiday seems to be planned.

– Two years ago, two weeks after the victory in St. Petersburg, you won the title in Vienna. Do you have an idea that you can do the same now?

– Absolutely not. What happened two years ago is long gone, and the feeling is different now. In Vienna, I have one task – to try to win every match. And how it will turn out – we’ll see. If I can win this tournament, it will be great. If I can’t, but I still get to Turin, it’s also great. Well, if neither one nor the other happens, then so be it – he didn’t deserve it. One thing I can say for sure: I will give myself to the tournaments in Vienna and Paris to the maximum.