Furious Andrey Rublev left bloodied after smashing his racquet into his knee during ATP Finals loss to Carlos Alcaraz
Andrey Rublev worked himself into such a fury during a 7-5, 6-2 loss to Carlos Alcaraz at the ATP Finals that he repeatedly hit himself with his racquet and ended up leaving his left knee bloodied.
Key points:
- Russian Andrey Rublev is forced to call for medical help after bloodying his own knee in frustration
- Rublev would go on to lose 7-5, 6-2 to Carlos Alcaraz at the ATP Finals, effectively ending his tournament
- Alcaraz will next face Daniil Medvedev to keep his campaign alive after an uncharacteristic losing streak
Rublev had already slammed his racquet to the ground during the opening game of the second set in Wednesday's round-robin match.
Then, when the Russian missed a shot to hand Alcaraz a break, he started beating himself as he walked to his chair and had to use a towel to wipe the blood off.
Blood continued to trickle down Rublev's leg as he played on and he eventually called a trainer for treatment.
"It's OK," Rublev shrugged afterwards.
"I get disappointed and couldn't manage."
The second-ranked Alcaraz, a 20-year-old Spaniard who is already a two-time grand slam champion, ended an uncharacteristic three-match losing streak following defeats to Grigor Dimitrov in Shanghai, Roman Safiullin in Paris and Alexander Zverev in his debut match in Turin.
While Rublev was virtually eliminated after losing both of his opening matches, Alcaraz boosted his chances of advancing from the round robin stage at the season-ending event for the year's top eight players.
Alcaraz will next face Daniil Medvedev, who secured his spot in the semi-finals with a 7-6 (9-7), 6-4 win over Zverev.
"The key against Medvedev is to play a perfect match — tactically," Alcaraz said.
Jannik Sinner leads the green group with two wins following his victory over Novak Djokovic on Tuesday, with the top two finishers in each four-man group advancing to the semi-finals.
The Alcaraz-Rublev match had proved a close affair in the opening set until the Spaniard broke for a 6-5 lead.
Then Rublev was left fuming as the opening point of the next game had to be replayed after his shot was called wide. The call was overturned on review after it was shown that the shot had landed on the line.
Rublev called it an "unlucky call."
"But it's part of the sport," he said.
"It happens every match. Just happened that it was an important point."
In the next game, Rublev bloodied himself.
As the second set wore on, Alcaraz began producing one highlight after another. Like when he hit a forehand cross-court passing shot as he was in the process of falling down, and also when he pulled off a backhand winner down the line from far off court on the run a couple of games later.
In the night clash, Medvedev saved two set points in the opening set as Zverev was shaky on the big points at the end of both sets.
"Very tough match mentally. I'm happy that I was able to regroup," Medvedev said.
"The ending of both sets was very tight."
Medvedev, the 2020 champion, improved to 11-7 in his career against Zverev and has now won five of their six meetings this year.
AP