Athletistic/Tennis. In the match of the second round of the tournament in Hamburg, Andrey Rublev played with Argentinian Francisco Serundolo.

Rublev started the match with confidence, took the lead in the opener 3-0, then almost took the opponent’s serve. But something went wrong. Andrei started losing point by point and clearly lost control of himself.

In one of the episodes, Rublev approached the judge and, with visible sarcasm, held out his hand for a handshake. And when he didn’t reciprocate Andrei, Rublev shook hands with the judge instead… his leg.

It should be noted that this incident was not the only one in the game. Before that, the Russian hastily called the tower judge ‘stupid’. Moreover, once he even swung his hand to send the ball into the stands out of anger but stopped in time.

At the start of the second game, Andrei could not calm down, he immediately gave up his serve. The annoyance of the Russian did not end. He bit the ball, hit his leg with a racket, so as not to receive further penalties. But the main thing is that the game never returned to him, and in the middle of the match he allowed his opponent to make another break (4:1) and lost in an hour and a half – 4:6, 2 :6.

Rublev could not continue his winning streak in Hamburg. Recall that in 2020 he became champion here, and in 2021 he missed the tournament due to the Olympics. Well, Serundolo continues to play lossless. After the title in Bostad, he beat another Russian in the 1/4 finals in Hamburg – Aslan Karatsev.

Here is what Serundolo said after the victory against Rublev: “I had another great game, I felt good, it was comfortable. I played well in the first three games, but the opponent didn’t almost didn’t make any mistakes, he was very stable.And then I managed to find my game and I had an incredible match.

Now I feel unreal. It’s good to have that kind of confidence. I’m happy with my game and the way I was set up. I didn’t have time to shut down.”

Here’s how Rublev’s trick was rated by foreign tennis fans:

Fergal_Tennis:
– One of the strangest things I’ve ever seen. Rublev had just squeezed the referee’s leg on the tower.

@BwehRublev:
– Andrei, I can’t keep protecting you if you keep screwing up like this. And today, you really screwed up to the max. What prevented you from being so active in the field?

@tan31_tennis:
– Wait what?! Why did he do it? A very strange act.

@Itsthatac:
– Rublev does not know the word “danger”. He will play with such antics.

@Sirgrid3198:
– Isn’t that a disqualification? Why was he forgiven?

@Sniper_MMA:
– The only thing that can be said to defend Rublev in this episode is that this judge is a really vile guy. No, seriously, I hate this guy. But Rublev, of course, should not touch people.

@JHumphreys28:
– So, Rublev saw fit to shake the judge’s leg. lol. Personally, for this I would write him a disqualification for a period of about a month, so that he has time to reflect on his behavior.

@BwehRublev:
– Nevertheless, we must admit that the referee did a terrible job today. But Rublev shouldn’t have behaved like that.

Recall that Rublev is the 2020 Olympic champion in mixed doubles (paired with Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova); winner of 14 ATP tournaments (including 11 singles); winner of the Davis Cup in 2021 and the ATP Cup in 2021 with the Russian team; ATP Finals Under 21 Finalist (2017). Honorary Master of Sports of Russia (2021).

In juniors – the winner of a Junior Grand Slam tournament in singles (French Open 2014); Junior Grand Slam doubles runner-up (Wimbledon 2014); Orange Bowl doubles runner-up (2013); Youth Olympic Games medalist (2014); former world number one in the junior rankings.

Rublev played his first tournament at the adult level at the age of 15 in July 2013 at the Futures Series competition in Bulgaria.

The childhood idol in the world of tennis was Marat Safin. In addition to Russian, he speaks English and Spanish. He loves music and plays the guitar. Among the hobbies of the tennis player can also be noted boxing and basketball, his favorite basketball team is the Golden State Warriors.

Since 2017 he has been training under former Spanish tennis player Fernando Vicente.

Currently, Rublev is the eighth racket in the world.

Andrei Lipatov, Sport.Ru