Andrey Rublev says reaching out to Marat Safin and asking the former two-time Grand Slam champion if he wanted to work with him was pretty much a no-brainer because it was always his hope to collaborate with the Russian tennis legend.
Growing up, the 27-year-old idolized Safin and later he got a chance to meet him. Earlier this year, the current top-ranked Russian male tennis player revealed that when he was going through his darkest period last year, someone contacted the Russian tennis icon and asked him if he would be willing to speak with him. The 2000 US Open winner agreed and his advice helped the world No. 9.
In mid-February, Rublev won his first title of the year in Doha but has since picked up opening-round exits in his last three tournaments. So ahead of the clay season, he figured out to reach out to Safin again – but this time to ask for a concrete partnership.
Rublev: Deep inside, I always wanted to work with Safin
“Deep inside, I always wanted to work together, but I knew that he was not interested. And I never wanted to put any pressure because I really care about Marat. Later on, I found out that he’s kind of ready to work in tennis or something like that, that he don’t mind,” the world No. 9 told tennis.com.
“And then I say, ‘OK, even if it’s not gonna be me, at least I can ask.’ I have nothing to lose if I ask. Then my agent ask, they talk and little by little we work for a couple of days together.”
When asked directly what prompted his decision to hire Safin, Rublev admitted he made it purely based on his feelings.
“It was my feelings. There was no logic, no explanation,” the 27-year-old added.
As the No. 7 seed, Rublev had a first-round bye in his clay-season opener at the Monte Carlo. On Wednesday, he will meet Gael Monfils in the Monte Carlo second round. That will also mark his and Safin’s debut as a player/coach duo.
Tennis World USA