Andrey Rublev's mother believes politics prevented son from even better 2022 season: "He accepted all external and internal problems courageously"

The mother of Andrey Rublev believes political issues have prevented her son from having a major year in 2021.

Rublev has been in the middle of a lot of political talks due to his rather outspoken nature about the war in Ukraine. No Russian player from the ATP side has spoken about the war as much as Rublev has. He was the first to publicly take a stance against it and repeated that message throughout the year many times.

He was also the most vocal during the Wimbledon negotiations being involved in the talks front and centre. His mother spoke to a Russian publication admitting that it affected him:

"The year for Andrey was very difficult - there was a lot of pressure from the public, the media and journalists. If this whole situation did not exist, then, of course, the results would be more successful."

She added:

"Post-match press conferences were given to Andrey hard. The journalists tried in every possible way to provoke, and this put pressure on the still fragile psyche of my son. Political events made themselves felt during the tournaments. Andrey was ready for anything, but not for this. I had to act on the go in order to somehow remain psychologically stable. Andrey is a real hero, I am very proud of him. He accepted all external and internal problems courageously."